Sphagnum moss as potting medium.

[Exo]

I use it for phals, with great results. I use a clear plastic pot and when I can see the roots in the deeper areas of the pot turn silver, I water. So far no root rot this way, and the moss seems to hold up for about a year.

[Gthumbz89]

I second the clear pot with Styrofoam on the bottom for drainage. With the clear pot it takes the guess work out of watering because when the roots are dry they turn silver. I have killed a plant or two with sphag when I didn't use a clear plastic pot to monitor the roots, so I feel ya.

[NYCorchidman]

I love sphag. Stays moist long and airy enough.
I hardly use it alone though. I mix with other stuff, although I do have a few plants including phals in straight sphag.

[MT-Phal]

After many years of unsuccessful attempts with S/H and coconut husk chips, I'm trying my hand at sphag. What I'm doing currently is putting a layer of prime agra at the bottom of a clear pot for drainage, then I placed the sphag up along the sides with the PA going up the middle. I'm hoping that this will reduce the chance of molds and fungus in the area which usually stays the wettest, while still catering to the roots.

I have to give props to my lone phal, it's put up with a lot but it's still going! What a fighter.

[james mickelso]

It is interesting that phals are grown so successfully in sphagnum moss for three or four years at the growers, then we get them and they quickly die from root loss. Must be the operators. It's not the spag but the conditions the orchid is grown in that kills the roots and plant. As NYOrchidman has said, moist and airy. That is the key. Wet and dank is the killer.

[ALToronto]

Here are some deflasked phal seedlings I'm growing in loosely packed NZ sphagnum. They're growing very well for the most part, although some (maybe 5%) are suffering from root rot. Ironically, the rot is at the very top of the roots, just where they exit the plant and are not yet inside the sphagnum. Fresh sphagnum is supposed to have anti-fungal properties, and I think my experience confirms it. The rot isn't killing the seedlings, and as the roots that grew inside the flask die off, new, hardier roots are replacing them.

Humidity in my house is over 70% consistently in the summer, they're near an open window, and I water these phals maybe once a week. If I deflasked them in the winter, when I struggle to keep humidity above 40%, most of them would have died, or at least I would have had to keep them under a dome till the summer.