The story of a rehabbed phal

[Tiffarew]

Thank you all for your input. We were also worried about the overcrowding issue but I don't think I could ever find it in me to cut off such an attached structure. I hope they end up growing in a conducive way so we can enjoy a giant multiple spiked orchid one day!! They are growing so fast, but surprisingly the mother finds the energy to keep growing it's own leaves. This is our miracle baby for sure!

[Orchid Whisperer]

You might want to look for posts from another user, bil, showing pictures of Phals in wide and shallow pots. A plant with many basal keikis might be well suited to growing that way when it gets older and the keikis are larger.

[bil]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

You might want to look for posts from another user, bil, showing pictures of Phals in wide and shallow pots. A plant with many basal keikis might be well suited to growing that way when it gets older and the keikis are larger.

Here's a pic of the ones I use. They are made from the top of a 35 cm pot and the base of a 40. I cut the top and bottom off, squeeze the base into the top and then use a hot rod to melt holes that act as rivets. As long as you don't abuse them, they hold together well.

I'm finding the deeper one better. If you use coarse (2") bark, there is precious litle risk of overwatering.

[Tiffarew]

Originally Posted by bil

Here's a pic of the ones I use. They are made from the top of a 35 cm pot and the base of a 40. I cut the top and bottom off, squeeze the base into the top and then use a hot rod to melt holes that act as rivets. As long as you don't abuse them, they hold together well.

I'm finding the deeper one better. If you use coarse (2") bark, there is precious litle risk of overwatering.

Thank you so much for sharing! You do a superb job in crafting these. Given the amount of Keikis we have, do you think a wider pot will be necessary or is that the best size?

[bil]

Originally Posted by Tiffarew

Thank you so much for sharing! You do a superb job in crafting these. Given the amount of Keikis we have, do you think a wider pot will be necessary or is that the best size?

TBH, I have no idea how big your phal will go given the amount of keikis it has. I have one with 3 stems, and it is promising to be a fair size. Heck, even one of the single stems I have is pretty big, and really needs a lot of space, and a correspondingly wide pot.

The secret is, coarse bark with no moss means you can go big without worrying about over watering or suffocating roots. it's still a good idea to keep it comparatively shallow, ie 5-6 inches deep, as if it is deep as well, it takes a LOT of water to wet it, and it can get a bit heavy to move around. I'm getting a bit old for weight lifting....

My suggestion would be, if you can spare the space, and it produces flowers that you like, then buy or construct as big a bowl/pot as you can and see how you go with that.

It promises to be a very spectacular plant.

[camille1585]

What ever you do potting wise will have to be adapted as the root mass increases. I like the idea of a shallow pot, and never though of custom building one like that!

I have an old Phal with tons of roots, and went a different route with it. It's potted up in a 15cm pot now, but to help it dry evenly there's an inverted net pot in the bottom to try to get the bottom of the pot to dry out faster. Next time it needs repotting I might try a wide and shallow pot.

[bil]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I like the idea of a shallow pot, and never though of custom building one like that!

Well, there is simply no where that will sell suitable shallow pots, so construction was the only way. I use some that are about 30 cm in diameter, for the thin rooted orchids, and those REALLY need to be shallow as the finer medium has a high risk of suffocating roots.

I don't know if you can see them on this greenhouse shot, they are all along the left side, full of hard cane dens. They are barely 3 inches deep.

[estación seca]

bil - are the inclined rectangular shallow pans visible under the hard-cane Dens growing containers for the plants seen there?

[Tiffarew]

So excited for our mystery flowers!!!

[Tiffarew]

Updated


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