Repotting beginner encounters boatloads of moss
 

Note: I was going to attach pics, but I need to figure out how to reduce file size. Yikes! I'll add them later if can.

This is my first repotting endeavor with a plant I bought last year.

It was the first that bloomed again! Long story I won't bore you with.

Anyway, I bought it at King Soopers or some other chain store. Not sure what I expected, but I had to cut the plastic pot off. It was packed with moss. There were a lot of dead roots. I was surprised it bloomed again and has produced more leaves since my purchase.

One thing I noticed is that many of the roots I removed looked fine at the end. It was closer to the plant that roots were black and mushy. Is that normal?

I'm going to put all of them (I have 2 others bought more recently) in bark.

Thanks! Steph

Both bark and moss work well for Phals. Moss requires different watering. Wait until the top is crisp dry. Then run water over the top for only one second. The water will diffuse through and evenly moisten the moss, leaving lots of air. Don't soak the moss thoroughly. That obliterates the air spaces and suffocates roots.

Moss only lasts 1-2 years before breaking down and needing replacement.

You probably cut off living roots. I recommend people not cut off roots. It isn't always possible to tell which are alive. They won't hurt the plant if you leave them on.

To post pictures, I use this method. Upload the picture to the free hosting site Postimages — free image hosting / image upload. Click the 'hotlink for forums' tab. Paste the copied link into your post. Your pic will appear in your post.

I'm not using moss. Using bark. Interesting that you said water for a minute as instructions that come with them are very different.

---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:11 PM ----------

I replanted the other two. One the roots looked really good. The other, 50/50. well see how they fare.this tiny house I'm renting has pretty poor light. Maybe if I put them in the dining table in the kitchen they'll get some south and west sun. The big one (first one I repotted) was nlin the west window when it bloomed in the hotel. But I think the amount they'll get here wont be as much.

I wrote to run water over Phals in moss for one second, not one minute. The directions on mass-produced Phals tend not to be good.

Phals are low light plants. They do need a 12 hour daylength in summer, but they grow and flower best at around 1,000 foot candles. That is medium to low shade. They don't ever need direct sun on their leaves.

The "cord" (conducting bundle) inside the "pool noodle" called the cortex, is the thing that draws water into the plant. The cortex is where CAM transport happens. CAM is a type of respiration specialized to desert plants and also plants that hang from trees (Epiphytes) like Phals and many orchids and succulents that grow in trees.

If one or more parts of the roots are still working, and intact, there is really no problem that there is a "gap" from one side to the other. It is just "ugly" and not "dead."

Dead is when there is basically the "cord" and the velamen, but nothing inside-- no cortex. So you can peel the old velamen off and you will see only the string-like cord.

Whatever medium you use, make certain that there is good air flow to the roots. Phals grow bare-root in very humid places so the medium's purpose is just to keep the air humid around the roots.

I used bark. I soaked it for couple days (only because life interrupted). But now the bark seems really drive. Does bark need watering more often than moss?

Yes, bark needs watering every 1-10 days depending on the size of the bark, ambient temperature/humidity and water use of the plant.

In fact, one of the advantages of bark is that it much harder to overwater than a more retentive medium like sphagnum. It naturally has lots of air space, which is what orchid roots love. So how moist you need to keep it is dependent on what type of orchid it is. For instance, an Oncidium wants to be a lot wetter than a Cattleya. So you'd use smaller bark for the the Oncidium and larger bark for the Catt. Then you can water both at the same interval, and each will get what they want. (THat's what I do with my large collection... I could not possibly customize the watering for each plant, not enough hours in the day. But by using different media for different types, I can water everything on the same schedule and each will experience the conditions that it needs - some stay wetter and some dry fast.

Good to know.

If phals love low light then why did mine bloom in a west window and do nothing when it was further away from a south window. I figured it needed more light.🤔 No?

oh man, you are quickly wading into dangerous territory!!

by this i mean that you need to consider all of the factor affecting a particular plant if you are analyzing blooms. like, perhaps when it was in the west window it was drying faster which it could have liked more so it bloomed. if you moved it, drying rate could have slowed and so the plant is adjusting or doesn't like the longer moist period. what about avg temp differences at the 2 spots, are they significantly different?

not saying this is what happened, only saying that all of these factors affect each other, and when one thing changes the plant may need time to adjust. we are still in this same learning curve and starting to identify factors affecting each plant in each location in our flat.

i would caution you against going down the too much light/not enough rabbit hole and trying to pin flowerring to that single factor alone. note all factors and conditions for each plant for awhile (you often read minimum of a year of observations). using light alone to push flowers will drive you mad, at least this is my humble opinion!!

edit to add a recent experience for an example: we have a dendrobium on the balcony and this spring it grew one bud on one cane. the bud developed nicely for a couple weeks, and one day for some unknown reason i decided to move it less than a foot vertically (its on the floor next to a short bench, so i put it up on the bench). within a couple days it was obvious it didn't like the location as the bud and the whole plant in general started to sulk. so put it back and again a couple days later it was visibly happier again. the only diffence in these 2 spots (literally right next to each other) is the amount of air flow, and i am pretty sure it just didn't like the change to all that "wind".

They do bloom in higher light. It's just that for most hybrids flower count and size, and inflorescence length, are better at 1,000 foot candles.

Phals need relatively low light, but they need lots of hours of light. So not a lot of intensity, but the more duration the better. When I was just getting started with orchids, I used my spare bedroom as a "greenhouse'. It got good eastern light for around 4-5 hours a day, then the sun shifted and the light was dim and indirect. My Phals mostly didn't rebloom. Then, I got some super-cheap fluorescent shop lights (this was before LEDs) , put them on a timer 12 hours a day, and bingo... I got about 80% reblooming. They weren't particularly bright, but they extended the "day", and that's what the Phals wanted.