Phals in S/H

[tinabee]

Thank you for all of the replies, everyone.

What should I do now as far as fertilizer? Should I use some KLN with it, just use KLN by itself for awhile, or what's next??

FWIW: It is now in the '80's during the day and the humidity is going up.

[grasshopper]

I add 1-2 drops of KLN to the fertilizer solution and water as usual.

[tinabee]

Fertilizer mixed at half strength and a drop of KLN in a 64 oz. bottle is premixed now for my phals in S/H. I decided to go ahead and cut down the bloom stalks and place them in vases, except one. It had new green knuckles growing out from the nodes......so I'm leaving that one alone.

I do have other phals. not in S/H that are currently either in bud or already in flower. I figure if I feel like I need to see more foliage on my porch, I can always go out and purchase more.

[Royal]

Originally Posted by Ray

For discussion purposes, why should being kept drier promote root growth? I have heard that many times before, but I can think of no solid reason that should be the case.

Hi Ray. I've read it somewhere and it seems to work for me. I don't starve them. I just keep them on the drier side of normal. I guess it's purely anecdotal, and I probably should have said initiate instead of promote. My own thinking (probably flawed) is that drier conditions around the root zone cause the plant to push out new roots to compensate. I don't suggest letting things get bone dry, just keep it on the drier side for a few weeks. Warm and humid and breezy conditions are great, but watering normally while expecting all the roots to die is a little counterintuitive.

Even when transferring to s/h with no active root growth, 100% root loss shouldn't be an inevitability. The advice I gave is more about minimizing transfer shock, encouraging new growth, and prevention of moisture related root ailments.

Take two identical plants. In otherwise optimal conditions, water one twice as often as needed and the other half as often. Which would we expect to make it longer? I don't have an answer, just trying to think this through.

[Hedge]

If there is any degree of succulence in a plant starving the roots of water should encourage new growth because the reservoir in the rest of the plant will support it while the roots search out new supplies. It won't work if the plant has little or no succulence - it will dehydrate, possibly fatally

[Ray]

Hedge, while I'll agree that a plant with more resources is likely to survive longer while attempting to grow roots, I still don't see the withholding of water to be something that "catalyzes" root growth.

It seems to me that the following holds:

• Plants need roots to survive.
• The survival "instinct" is present naturally.
• Therefore, the plant will grow roots irrespective of outside stimuli.
• Meaning that our job is to remove anything detrimental to that, and just let it happen.

On the other hand, it seems entirely plausible that upon dehydration, there is a physiological shift within the plant's cells that "turns on" the growth of roots, although I have not been able to find anything to back that up.

[Royal]

Originally Posted by Ray

On the other hand, it seems entirely plausible that upon dehydration, there is a physiological shift within the plant's cells that "turns on" the growth of roots, although I have not been able to find anything to back that up.

I can't find info supporting this either, but it's kind of what I'm talking about. I've wintered my plants this year in my laundry room under lights and they have definitely had less water than usual. Humidity is good, and they do get watered, just not as often as I would like. Root growth has been exceptional, but I know the plants are a bit stressed. I guess the question would be is there is a net gain from stressing a plant? Of course it could be that my other cultural factors (temp and humidity) are better or more consistent this year. [edit: or that I previously watered too often and the plants prefer a little less than I thought.]

While I don't have any hard data, I think I'm still inclined to give this advice. The dividing line between giving ample water and a deadly amount of water is very thin. The difference between growing things on the dry side, and deadly dryness leaves more margin for error.

If we start with the premise that roots are rotting, have rotted, or will rot - watering less is always a good idea. Just my .

[Ray]

An interesting take, Royal.

Most of my plants are mounted or in s/h culture, so there's no such thing as too much water...

[tinabee]

All of my plants I repotted in S/H seem to be doing well. As expected, there is a lot of root die-off, but I notice that the new roots which are growing are thicker and better in appearance than the old. One of my phals just put out a very sturdy bloom spike and I noticed with that same plant, yet another bloom spike has made a surprise appearance.

My hope now is the new roots like S/H. How well do they adapt to it, or is there continuous regrowth and die-off?

[grasshopper]

Once a plant has fully established itself in S/H (new roots replacing the old ones) there is no die off because those roots adapted to the S/H environment.