Office Phal Experiment

[Bill U.]

I think putting it under your desk may be the best option to give it a dark period. As for over the weekend, I would actually think that leaving it under the desk would be better than having it not rest for a dark period. Most phals will like too little light than too much, especially when in bloom. It may even extend the length of bloom time due to the shading, as many sources state keeping a phal out of direct sunlight or even their "grow" light csn increase bloom time. One source intoned it as "a place to grow, and a place to show" (recommending a dining room table or such to enjoy the blooms-the plant would be okay).

[LovePhals]

Neat experiment!

[Troythediver]

I will be moving it under my desk when I leave from now on. The flowers looked droopy and sad this morning when I got in to work. The bark was dry which I'm owing to my office building being very dry since I watered it last Friday afternoon. Apparently I will be watering 2-3 times/week in this environment.

That being said, the second to last bud is now almost opened fully.

If the flowers droop a little due to dryness, do they recover? It's never happened to me before. So I'm not sure if it's environmental change stress or what.

[ALToronto]

Buy a cheap timer and plug your desk lamp into it. Set it to stay on for 14 hours / day.

[Troythediver]

Sad news. The beautiful flowers are fading fast. A tremendous amount of rot set into the roots over the weekend, and triage had to be performed today. Unfortunately, during my first repot I tried to leave as much as possible. To be honest, I haven't really lost too many orchids to root rot. Essentially I have only had to throw out 2 orchids and they were both clearance mini phals for a dollar each with fully wilted leaves.

Anyhow. I must have missed a black spot on the poor thing and it ravaged through its two longest roots in 2 days time. I ripped it out of the bark and severely cut back the roots to ensure that all rot was gone. It is now staying in a empty double pot with water at the bottom ( not touching the roots). I will be cutting the spike and seeing if it manages to pull through. How long should I wait before I try to repot it in medium? Apparently it is very weak to have not been able to fend off the rot at all.

[AnonYMouse]

The double pots aren't ceramic/terracotta/clay? It will be too cool for Phals when wet.

[Troythediver]

The pots are plastic.

[Troythediver]

Update: I got a timer for my task light, so it will now get a light dark cycle. I cut off the spike. It is now just sitting in the humidity reservoir under the pot.

[Troythediver]

Because the roots were rotting, I left it out of the pot all week. I essentially watered the roots in the morning and afternoons. But it got a lot of dry out periods in between. Hopefully, the cut root tips will not start rotting immediately in the new bark.

I also added large styrofoam chunks to the media to take up space and counteract the fact that the bark isn't very coarse.