Hi all. One of my phals is one that I had rescued from my very own (yes, I admit it
) negligence. This phal had spiked and bloomed spectacularly late spring last year, but while it was in bloom I began to notice that the plant was in distress. I unpotted it and low and behold I had a bunch of rotten roots. I cut the spike off, flowers and all, cleaned up all the rotten roots, and repotted in a much smaller pot (after cutting away all the dead roots the original pot would have been much too big). So this phal WAS a rather large phal, and after going through all that, It's now a small plant with 3 leaves. I had repotted it in a 2" rand air cone pot, in bark, and it has been on my glass shelf under led lights with 15 other phals, on a heat mat. Up to now little phal has been doing very very well. New air roots, a new leaf, and I was so pleased that I was able to save it. Well, recently I've begun to notice that the bright green roots tips have stopped growing, and seem to be 'shutting off' as it were. There was one nice fat root that has been making it's way down into the medium that now has stopped as well. I've been watering this little one nearly every day as it's in bark, in a very small pot (2") and on a warming mat. Well, around 2 weeks ago I broke down and began doing the skewer method with all my orchids, and was surprised to learn that the skewer in this little 2" pot was slightly moist one day after watering. So for the last week I've watered every other day. But now this phal has developed limp leaves, and it's not anchored as well in the pot. So I guess I have several questions here. One, although I've heard that one can't over water in bark, could I have been overwatering here? And two, do roots stop their growth stage due to cultural changes, or do they stop as a matter of course?
Rescue again in decline...
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