switching phal gigatea to s/h

[groundpounder17]

Hello everyone,

I had order a phal gigantea and a psychopsis kalili from orchidweb.com a little over a month ago which arrived and was potted on 7/8/10. The phal gigantea has several of the older roots dying while some of the newer growing roots look pretty good. I have decided to switch my phal gigantea and another phal (NOID) to s/h. I had purchased the 100 gpd 5-stage complete RO system from Ray so I went ahead and purchased some PrimeAgra LECA and s/h pots (2 holes on side).

I've already finished installing the RO system and I really enjoy it thus far. I soaked the PrimeAgra in some epsom salt (1 tsp/1 gallon) last night after first rinsing it of dust. Today I drained rinsed the medium again and began soaking it in KLN rooting hormone (1 tbs/1 gallon). My plan is to remove the plants and lightly remove the bulk of the old medium followed by rinsing the roots then allowing it to soak in KLN rooting solution for maybe an hour. I then plan on potting in the two holed pots. I will then water again with the KLN rooting solution. When I'm finished I plan to put in a shady area in my house on a heat mat.

Does this seem like the proper way to do this? If anyone has any tips or corrections to what I plan to do please feel free to school me! I'm relatively new to orchids and really new to s/h. This board and Ray's site have been really helpful on the s/h portion of things so far.

[WhiteRabbit]

I am afraid I can't answer your question - bumping so that maybe someone who can will see it

[TylerK]

I have a Phal gigantea in s/h and it's been doing well so far. I put it in there just under a year ago, and it has put out two new leaves so far. It's still very small with only a 7 inch leaf span, but it's been growing faster than I've heard most people say is normal.

I don't see any problems with your method, but I'm not sure that the epsom salts are necessary. With the subsequent washing and soaking none of it is going to be left in the PrimeAgra anyway.

A couple things that might be useful to you: Phal gigantea can take more light than most Phals. I wouldn't keep it in too much shade, even when it's getting used to it's new home. It might also be beneficial to give the PrimeAgra around the base of the plant a good spraying once or twice a day until new roots have had a chance to reach down into the medium.

Tyler

[groundpounder17]

Spray with a rooting hormone solution like KLN or just water? When I repotted yesterday I ended up having about 75% root rot and had to remove much of the root system. Thanks for the advice! I'll keep you guys posted on how my gigantea does.

[TylerK]

You don't need KLN in the spray if you're watering with it. The spraying is just to keep the top layers of the PirmeAgra damp so that the roots will grow into it. I've found that if the top layer is too dry the roots will not grow down and you will have issues trying to keep the plant properly hydrated. When my plants' roots hit perpetually dry LECA they just seem to die right back.

Good luck! Phals seem to take to s/h quite well, so you should be alright. It sounds like you're doing everything right.

[groundpounder17]

When I got home this evening I noticed one of the few remaining roots turning brown so I lightly watered using a turkey baster with 1 tbp kln to 1 gallon water. Any ideas or tips? I hope I did the right thing by lightly wetting the roots today. I did not soak/saturate the LECA today, no more than probably 3-4 oz.

[TylerK]

Watering with KLN isn't going to stop your roots from rotting. In most cases when moving to s/h your old roots will rot away.

Are there new roots on the plant? Generally, you shouldn't move plants into s/h unless they have some new root growth. It minimizes the time between old roots rotting away and new roots growing in to take over. The new roots will be acclimatized to the new medium and won't rot like the old ones. Bottom heat and keeping the top layer of PrimeAgra moist will help the roots grow better/faster.

[groundpounder17]

I did have a little root growth when I repotted but not much. I didn't want to repot but my plant was doing poorly so I decided to switch to s/h. I figure that I must have over watered and the pot was a little too big. Hopefully s/h will be better suited for me with this plant. My psychopsis remains in a mix and it's two spikes are about to bloom. I was originally most worried about my psychopsis but now it's by far my healthiest orchid. I don't plan on switching it to s/h but have plenty if pots and LECA if I ever change my mind. After looking again at the root that I previously stated as brown, my wife informed me that it is dark green and not brown.

[groundpounder17]

I am to expect more root rot/dying when switching to s/h, correct? I had already lost a lot of root mass during the repotting so I am a little worried. When a root dies should I just trim it off in place and remove it or should I occasionally remove the plant from the primeagra since once it adapts removing the plant is not hard on the roots?

[Eyebabe]

I have been told the best time to move a plant to s/h is when there is new root growth that is less than one inch long.
That said, most of my plants I just moved....too impatient and too much OCD in wanting everything uniform.
I soaked the PrimeAgra in KLN but it is 1 teaspoon per gallon..NOT one tablespoon.
Your old roots however lovely, will likely die off but you want them to die slowly so the new roots can take over. Too many salts will increase the rate of root death. So I went with the lower amount of KLN which is what Ray recommends in his pamphlet.
I also watered the first month with 1 teaspoon of KLN in the water per gallon. I absolutely noted a salt deposit occurring near the drainage holes doing this and I now have gone back to plain distilled water for now. I spritz the top PrimaAgra daily or every/other day to encourage the roots to grow into the media as others have suggested. I tried some NZsphag around the top to try to keep top moisture but did not like it.
At the one month mark, I pulled each pot and gave it nice flush of distilled water. Furthermore, if I noticed a good bit of old roots rotted, I took it out of the media and trimmed it up a bit before putting it back. I tried to be the least bit disruptive to the plant in doing this but I just could not help myself
Finally, for all my phals, I am using seedling mats which has done a nice job of pushing the moisture up to the top of the pot. Huge difference for the phals I must say. I will eventually do seedling mats for all but my space for now won't allow it.
In a few more weeks, I will probably go to a weak fertilizer in the watering once per week, and continue the monthly "flush".
I have 101 plants thus far that I have potted over the past three months. I have lost 2 phals to pseudomonas of the 15 I had. I lost 1 cat to pseudomonas as well of the 80+ I have. This is probably no worse than usual.
In my opinion, so far, so good