Phalaenopsis Experiment
 

Stopped by Lowes and purchased 6 very sad Phals for $10 (talked to the manager and got him to lower the price on the clearance rack)

So, took them home and soaked them overnight in plain water

Here is what they looked like after removing about 6 pounds of moss

The roots weren't too bad..better on some, worse on others.

Here is the amount of dead roots I cut away

Used same pots and special orchid mix and after repotting soaked them in a solution of super thrive and a fertilizer I purchased at a local nursery

Here is the result

Have them on my porch and will water with a weak solution of the fertilizer twice a week

Things I did not do:

Use sterile scissors
Use any type of cinnamon
Worry about disease

Will see if my carefree approach will work!

It sounds like you are enjoying yourself, rather than stressing out about perfection and rules. I *love* this approach. Good luck and have fun!

Good luck! Their roots don't look half bad! I got really lucky with my last 3 clearance purchases, they looked really good. I've bought one full price and another clearance that were no so bueno. Let us know how it goes! :D

^^ this has been my approach, but i'm using the spike fertilizer instead -- i will be following your experiment! :)

Awesome Nanook 2010! Will be following for updates :)

Good job.

I would have used sterile scissors though since one of them could be virused and you wouldn't want to spread that to the others because you wouldn't necessarily know it until much, much later. I know you got them really cheap so you might not care about that right now, but it would be a shame to get them healthy and then fall in love with the flowers only to have it die from a virus that could have been prevented.

Just my :twocents:.

But it's just an experiment. There's always a possibility of a virus and it may be luck/chance this experiment so it's always good to be careful. But it will be interesting to see what comes of these guys. Kudos on the experiment!