First Orchid: Some Grocery Store Phal hybrid

[alecStewart1]

Hey friends!

I was over getting a few groceries at Sprouts (as you can see from the bag in the image) and saw they were still selling some Phals for ~$16, and I know Phals are relatively easy so I thought I'd get one! First orchid, hopefully many more to come if I can keep this one alive! I think all that I need to do is not overwater!

God knows what hybrid this is, there was no tag even saying it was a Phal but a "5 Inch Everyday Orchid"
Not to support the extremely contentious orchids.com, but this is the closest named grex I could find: Phal. Lioulin Claire 'Galaxy' (Lioulin Elf x Chian Xen Piano ' CX339' FCC/AOS ) / Orchids.com

Even then, the one I have isn't 100% the same. But hey, normally $20 bucks (not including shipping) online somewhere for $16, that's good deal! There were others that were interesting too, but the pattern on this one stuck out to my lizard brain.

I inspected it to make sure there were no signs of viruses, spider mites or other pests or mold/fungus infestation and all I could see is that the orchid bark it's in was dry as a bone. Also some of the leaves where splitting at the ends (you can sort of see it in the photos). Gave it some distilled water, sat it by the other plants that just need the indirect light from my grow cabinet and so far so good!

[Roberta]

Great find! Doesn't need distilled water, these are quite forgiving of "liquid rocks" from the tap. If it is in a medium that tends to dry out, great! Some of these come in soggy broken down sphagnum that destroys roots. If drier, probably has good roots. The leaf splitting tends to happen if it is too dry. Not a problem, you have resolved it by watering.

[Leafmite]

Good luck with your new orchid!

[alecStewart1]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Doesn't need distilled water, these are quite forgiving of "liquid rocks" from the tap.

Good. IIRC I've seen quite a few places online that when growing Phals (even though they generalize and call them "orchids") they say to put an ice cube on top of the medium and after a few days of it melting put another one on. Doesn't sound like too bad of advice for a beginner, actually.

I stuck a bowl full of water need it too to up the humidity, even though with all of the plants near each other and the grow cabinet that has the humidifier going it's likely already 50% RH over there.

Originally Posted by Roberta

If it is in a medium that tends to dry out, great! Some of these come in soggy broken down sphagnum that destroys roots. If drier, probably has good roots.

Yea at first I thought it was something else besides orchid bark, but gently moving some of the bark around to look down into the pot more I just found more orchid bark. So neat! The roots looked good, but the one air root sticking out of the pot was clearly drying up from not being watered.

[Roberta]

Don't worry about humidity, just keep the plant watered. And NO ICE. This is a tropical plant... unless you have ice at 60 deg F.. When you water, water it well - so that it flows through the pot. That pulls air into the root zone, and also flushes out fertilizer and hard water salts. Your goal in the root zone is "humid air" - so bark is a good medium, lots of air space.

[estación seca]

Have a look at a sticky thread here. From the left yellow menu hit Forums then Beginners. Near the top look for The Phal. abuse stops here. Read the first few pages.

[alecStewart1]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Have a look at a sticky thread here. From the left yellow menu hit Forums then Beginners. Near the top look for The Phal. abuse stops here. Read the first few pages.

Nice, good info. I guess if I had one question from that thread, is there anything to diluting Epson salts to then water Phals/orchids with? Someone mentioned that there.

Not that I'm going to try to do this, I was just curious. Initially, it sound more like a "works on paper" kind of thing.

[estación seca]

Epsom salts are used to supplement magnesium, a mineral required for chlorophyll formation. If your water or fertilizer contains adequate magnesium you don't need to use Epsom salts.

You can find out what's in your water by reading your water utility's annual water quality report, available somewhere on their Web site.