Branching Out From Phals
 

I got my first orchid is 2015, quickly got addicted, and collected a variety of the popular ones, mostly Phals but I tried Paphs, Cattleyas and various Oncidium types. I learned over a few years that the only ones that did well for me were the Phals, and even then, only the winter-blooming hybrid types, not the novelty summer-blooming ones. So, sadly, I rehomed everything else. Enough years have gone by, and I feel I may have learned enough to try some other types of orchids. Plus, I confess that having nothing but that one type of orchid in my collection is getting a bit boring.

We had Eric Sauer of River Valley Orchids give a very nice talk at our society meeting last Sunday (with plants for sale), and I came home with two new ones, a Maxillaria tenuifolia and a Phragmipedium Bouley Bay. The Phrag is in a two-and-a-half-inch pot, has five leaves, and does not appear to have bloomed yet. The Maxillaria is in a four-inch net pot, through which I can see abundant roots. It has what I’m guessing may be three divisions, if that’s the correct terminology, with a total of nine pseudobulbs. I don’t know if it has bloomed before, as I’m not sure what a spent flower spike looks like on one of these. I know they stay quite short.

I’m hoping for some helpful advice on caring for these two and hopefully getting some blooms. I explained my growing conditions to Eric, and he seemed to think they would do just fine. He did tell all of us in his talk that Phrags like to have wet feet, don’t ever let them get totally dry.

I grow entirely indoors, in my kitchen/dining room. There is a large south-facing window with sheer curtains I can pull when the sun is coming in strong. I have a few supplemental lights (floor lamp type) overhanging the table, on for 12 hours a day. Temps are pretty consistent but probably 68 – 72 year-round. Humidity in the summer is probably in the 50s, in the winter, can be as low as the teens, but mostly in the 20s. I water more frequently in the winter for that reason. I fertilize with MSU approximately twice a month.

Mods, I wasn't sure where to post this. If you feel it should be somewhere else, or if I should make this two different posts and put in the respective sub-forum for those plants, just say the word.

The Max tenuifolia will do well with bright light. In time, there will be new growths from the existing pseudobulbs. Don't try to "clean up" brown sheaths that develop along those internodes... they are protecting the root system! (In fact, the root system will continue along those stems between the pseudobulbs). Flowers are little, come out at the base of the new leaves. Smell like coconut! It likes to stay a bit damp, tends to resent repotting. The Phrag likes to be wet... many people set those in a shallow pan with water. So you can grow both of these a lot wetter than you grow the Phals.

One of our senior club members, also an AOS judge, has a habit of ripping growths out of her Phrag. pots at shows or meetings with her hands, and giving them to junior members. She tells them to pot them in fine bark and stand the pot in a half inch of water in a dish. It works.

I’ve been doing something real similar by whatever medium that I use to just set it in a bowl,pan, or whatever I have that works best for the size pot it’s in. I just set it in water different levels to let the roots hopefully seek out the water to take whatever they want. It does work.

Phrag - consider semi-hydroponics.

Thanks to all of you for the responses. Fingers crossed that this works out and I don't kill them! I'm really looking forward to flowers on both of these, though I know it's not going to happen overnight. Everything I've read says the Maxillaria blooms around March/April, so I may have to wait until next year on that one.

One follow-up question on the Phrag. I do have it standing in a bowl with a half inch of water, but I should still water it regularly from the top, right? I mean, it doesn't get all the water it needs just from wicking it up from the bowl?

Yes, water it from the top regularly. You want to displace all the air in the medium so when the water leaves the pot fresh air is drawn into the medium.