Mini Phal root help

[gngrhill]

Originally Posted by mheleo

I had the same thing happened to me. The bag didn't worked for me. Luckily, I have an empty 36 gallon fish tank. I tied the phal on a piece of mopany wood and just sprayed the wood with water everyday until a new root appears. Now it is growing more roots. Can't wait until the roots grab a tight hold of the wood. Hope this helps.

Good job.

[NewbzOrchid]

Oh wow, hopefully I have the same luck as you. c:

Also I was wondering if I placed the orchid in some sphagnum moss if that would help it better produce roots? Or should I just leave it in the humidity container I have it in until it does since currently it has no roots at all?

[Callie99]

I am going to be honest with you. You can do this the simple way. My orchid almost died on me. She had one root left. All I did was take all of the soil out of the pot and replaced it with a bottom ful of marbles that you get at the dollar store. Then I took a spray bottle and watered the root daily. She is very healthy and has flowers now. That is just what I did. You can do what everyone eagle said I just wanted to put that out there for a simpler method.

[NewbzOrchid]

That's interesting, though I'm curious as to why the marbles helped.

I'll do pretty much anything if I can keep this little phal from dying.

[Callie99]

Once you wash them they can be used as a sterile surface.

[malteseproverb]

I had a phal I bought from a supermarket that, by the time I took it out to look at the roots, it had none. I decided I would try the laziest way ever to revive it, as an experiment because I did not really care much about the plant. So here is my lazy phal rescue story. All I did was stick it in a small pot of sphagnum moss that I kept consistently moist. I put rocks at the bottom so it wasn't too top heavy but there was definitely too much moss in there for the plant. I thought it would rot but like I said, lazy. This was in about February of last year.

For a few months it languished: the leaves got leathery and dark, and I saw very little root growth. There was a bit if mold but I just cleaned it off. Throughout summer I kept it in the brightest area possible (south facing windowsill) and continued keeping it moist. I used seaweed fertilizer that I bought on Amazon this summer which I think helped all my orchids with their roots this year. By the end of the summer it had 5 fat, long roots, the leaves had plumped back up, and it had two new leaves. For the fall, I took out a bunch of the sphagnum moss for better air circulation but I didn't have any bark so I just left it. It is still growing roots, but one of the leaves turned yellow and fell off because it has been incredibly dark and humid here this fall (thanks to El Nino). I will definitely repot in bark in the spring. I don't expect it will bloom for a while, but it's certainly not dying anymore.

[NewbzOrchid]

I thought that the marbles helped with humidity or something so that's why I was curious. So they were just used as a type of media, nothing more?

I was wondering if I should try to place it in some moist sphagnum moss. I might try that next if I don't see any improvements.

[Callie99]

I'm sure if you put a tray full of water under it then you can use it to humidify. I used it for a sterile surface because bugs and stuff like to hide in media so when you have the marbles you occasionally wash them to prevent algae. You can also monitor the roots that way.