So, after some serious mistreatment where I messed up the strength of a recommended home remedy for mealybugs, which caused damage to some leaves, mold in the medium of some phals, blasted pretty much ALL of their buds; we seem to now be mealybug free. Finally! It's the insecticide that's now doing its thing and after repotting those that got mold in the medium (and root mold in one case), I'm done messing with my poor phals.
Unfortunately, I tossed the Nelly Isler as I wasn't sure if it had a mealybug infestation of if something else was going on with it. At least now I know I dare try getting another one later if I want to.
Since all buds blasted (except for my Yaphon Blue Bird), the majority of the phals have produced new ones. Only one new in the case of my Yaphon Green Batman, but that's fine. I just want all phals to survive and grow now.
Single bud on Yaphon Green Batman:
My Liu's Berry 'ES' blasted three of its buds, but has a total of nine new buds and I think the first one might open this week:
My KS Pride 'Golden Diamond' has finally started to form buds. I didn't even realize how long time it's taken for it to develop its spike, especially when I compare it to my Magic Art:
My Younghome Godspeed has really suffered and I haven't even realized it. It came with severe root rot and I didn't even try to address it and naturally it got worse from my mistreatment. It's now getting at least one new root and I think it has enough root "matter" to make it and the root rot is under control. It's continued to grow its spike and while the main-spike blasted all of its buds, the branch one has continued to grow its buds:
One thing I did not expect was my Sogo Diamond 'HLW' to toss out a spike though. I figured it would need a drop in average temp to spike, but it surprised me:
The spike on my Magic Art is continuing its growth and I think it's branching, but I'm not sure:
And then my two pretty happy phals; my Jennifer Palermo and my Germaine Vincent. These two both have two spikes each and while one of them stalled on the JP, it has started growing again and a small bud is forming. On its active spike, two buds are growing:
The Germaine Vincent is going strong with its two spikes and it'll be interesting to see which of the JP and GV will flower first:
Here are its two spikes:
I'm looking forward to these two primary hybrids flowering as I honestly don't know if or how their flowers will differ. My guess is that they'll be pretty similar. The colour is "bleeding" through the buds more on the GV so far, but that could be because the bud is more developed.
In other news, I've managed to cause my poor Tying Shin Fly Eagle to get mold on its roots due to the mistreatment. Its spike stalled immediately and while it has two new roots growing, we'll see how things develop. I'm keeping the bark it's in pretty dry, because I think it's getting too cold during the nights here.The mold immediately flares up whenever I water it, but I think I've saved parts of some roots at least. I've ordered seedling heat mats that should arrive today, which I hope will help so I can water it a bit more often and/or move it closer to the humidifier to increase the RH around it.