Beautiful fat roots.

[Blueszz]

Every time I purchase a Phalaenopsis, the roots that grow for me are much fatter than the roots that grew for the nursery. They look much better than the old roots.
This leaves me to wonder what causes roots to fatten up so nicely?

I water when the medium in the middle of the pot is almost dry (skewer looks dry, but feels still a bit cold). I fertilise weakly during growth (roots, leaves, spikes).
The fertiliser I use is very comon brand in the Netherlands (Pokon Universeel) with NPK 7,3,7 with micro nutrients. I use 1/10 of the advise dose on the bottle. Advised is 10 cc /liter. My Phal's get 1 cc/liter.

(Advised 2 teaspoons/ 0.25 gallon, I use 0.2 teaspoon / 0,25 gallon).

Sometimes it gets a fertiliser with more P.

The medium I use doesn't hold as much moister as the growers use, it's also coarser. I experimented with bark only and a bark mixture with coco husk and sphagnum. It seems that the roots in bark only grow fatter.

Just a question out of curiosity.

[Royal]

Nice work! It sounds like you just grow the whole plant better than they do. You obviously are in tune with your plants' needs, and mimic the natural environment well. That's my guess.

[Blueszz]

Another thought is that commercial growers rush the plants, which makes the roots grow faster and thus less fat.

[Becky15349]

Yeah, I think growers rush 'em, they switch up environmental conditions to get plants into flower quicker from a seedling age, its kinda crazy - but I think yours really like you!! Phal roots are the bomb aren't they??

[Blueszz]

Phal roots are beautiful! As beautiful as their flowers :-)

[mehitabel]

IMO, big fat phal roots mean your medium is exactly right for your growing conditions and watering habits.

Growers have to cut pennies everywhere to sell cheaply enough to compete for buyers. So they cut corners on the medium, on repotting, etc etc.

[Blueszz]

The funny thing is, I have bags with medium from a commercial grower. For the Dutch on this forum, it is medium from Cameleon orchids. I bought it for my Paphiopedilums as it hold moister better than bark only. This commercial grower also grows his Phal's in this medium. In my home environment I don't like it at all for my Phal's.
In this season it dries out fast enough, but I know I have to water very carefully ones it gets colder again - because it's not as airy as it should be in my opinion. In an attempt to make it more airy I added some LECA but I doubt that is the trick. In the future I go back to bark only (for Phal's) I guess ;-)

[camille1585]

Or maybe (this is a wild theory I just thought up) when the plants are growing in a humid greenhouse it is very easy for them to get moisture, so they don't need a thick coat of velamen. So when it gets into a low humidity place, the new roots have thicker velamen to get a max amount of moisture out of the dryish air. So they appear thicker. Just a thought. Can anyone confirm this or tell me I'm wrong?

[Blueszz]

A fact: the new roots in the pot are twice as fat as the 'aerial' roots one of my plants makes. Also, these 'aerials' grow in a much slower rate than the roots in the pot. I realize I only talk about one plant, as the others have no 'aerials'.

Also, I asume the humidity in the pot is always or most of the time higher than the humidity in my living room / kitchen etc (between 36 and 60%, depending on the season).

Why do some Phal's or Phal's in other growing conditions than mine live in, make so many 'aerials'?
What I could observe in some of my rescues with severe root rot, that these *all* had several and/or abundant 'aerial' roots.
A theory is that they make more 'aerial's if they don't like the medium. Luckily for these rescues, the 'aerials' helped them to survive. The plants with severe root rot but with abundant 'aerial' roots still showed no signs of dehydration. Fact: those 'aerials' were not as thick as the roots the same plants grow now in their pots.

Just some thoughts and things I could observe here (to make it easy *NOT*

[Gwenchanter]

My phals in ceramic pots don't grow as many ariels as the ones in ceramic because the ceramic "breathes" more.

As far as the fatness of the root, the fleshy part of the root is really just a protective covering of the real root inside. I think the other poster's theory about protecting themselves against dessication is a good one. Also, young plants will always have thinner roots then older plants so it could just be a simple case of them maturing.

Speaking of roots, I have this plant growing the craziest ariel root I've ever seen. Just thought you all might enjoy seeing it.