Keikis poppin

[DirtyCoconuts]

I got this Phal from my step mother who got it at whole foods about three years ago- she kept it indoors and used the "ice cube" method and it basically sat on the kitchen counter for several years. frustrated with the lack of anything, she gave it to me.

I unpotted it and found, surprise surprise, not a single healthy root in the mass of sphagnum moss....i placed it into a bed of mos over a lot of rock for drainage and gave it the triage treatment...kelpmax, rest, kelp max rest, leave it alone.

It started to put out a big healthy root into the sphag and a few air roots but no growth on the crown...i thought maybe it was spent and i placed keiki paste on the three healthy bracts on the spike and figured it could maybe make one and live on....

that was about two months ago.....


Some stuff by J Solo, on Flickr

apparently, i was wrong, she is NOT spent. that is a beefy new leaf from the crown and all three bracts developed at record speed!!!

the moral of the story....don't ever give up on an orchid until it is all dead, all the way, all dead

[neophyte]

there have been stories of orchids who have lost all their leaves to crown rot, just left with one or two pathetic roots, that have been placed in full water culture (and put in a plastic bag for humidity) and have actually managed to put out new leaves and survive. orchids are resilient! and kelpmax is good.