Phalaenopsis gigantea - long term growing project

[Thriodien]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Seeing how little few people grow the species (or just little interest in this thread/project) I would not object if a primary hybrid is in here. The the influence of a more 'normal' Phal does make the hybrid generally significantly easier to grow... It could be nice to compare how the species and a primary hybrid develop/

Personally i wouldn't dare trying to grow a gigantea coz i know i cannot keep it hot and humid enough. But i like its primaries too, they don't seem that intimidating to me So i recently acquired a Phal. gigantea Jumbo Orchids x sumatrana Green Gold.



I'm not fond of its root system and older leaves but i guess new ones will grow so that's not an issue. Hopefully soon we'll see any development

[K-Sci]

I just found this thread searching the forum for Palaenopsis gigantea growing discussions. It's a great thread! I'm not growing indoors, but if you're like me every data point is a treasure.

The larger plant is potted in 50-50 LECA and large Orchiata. The smaller two in straight LECA. Initially I put the smaller ones in S/H, but I chickened out. I may un-checken out if my P cornu-cervi does well. They get watered every morning. I was fertilizing only lightly, but will be stepping it up to weekly K-Lite in RO water at 100ppm - based on the research at the beginning of this post.

My Phalaenpsis gigantea are both new. The large one I've had for two months, the smaller two about one month. The pot size of the smaller ones is 3 inches (7.6cm). I grow them in ~50% shade cloth filtered sun, about 2750cp. The Mississippi summer daytime temperatures peak at around 95F (35C). The light is sufficient to raise the the leaf temperatures noticeably, but not super warm. Here's the photo:

[camille1585]

Welcome to the project Ericvogt, Thriodien and K-Sci! I'm happy that there are now a couple more people in this project to share notes with.

K-sci : Well, you are growing them potted so that does count, and it will be interesting to see how potted plants do in a more favorable climate. Please post updates as your plants grow!


Update on my plant: It has settled in very well in the 3D printed net pot, and after nearly 3 months, there are a couple nice fat roots that have grown out of the net pot and are colonizing the space between it and the outer pot. The roots are have big active growth tips and look happy, contrary to the roots that were growing out of the standard plastic pot before repotting it. I'm guessing it really likes the humid root zone environment!

I'm not sure there's enough of a space between the 2 pots, so I might order a slightly larger one (is now in a 15cm) to have a wider gap for the roots to grow into.

[Thriodien]

How R U gonna detangle the roots from this basket once you need to repot? I'm always dreading it!

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Thriodien

How R U gonna detangle the roots from this basket once you need to repot? I'm always dreading it!

It's in leca, so I don't expect to need to repot anytime soon! If I do I'll either drop it into a larger net pot without touching it, or cut the current net pot off of it.

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Hi Camille

you are growing them potted so that does count, and it will be interesting to see how potted plants do in a more favorable climate. Please post updates as your plants grow!

Will do.

Update on my plant: It has settled in very well in the 3D printed net pot, and after nearly 3 months, there are a couple nice fat roots that have grown out of the net pot and are colonizing the space between it and the outer pot. The roots are have big active growth tips and look happy, contrary to the roots that were growing out of the standard plastic pot before repotting it. I'm guessing it really likes the humid root zone environment!

That makes sense. Mine don't have much in the way of roots, but there are no dead roots either. I've received several plant purchases in the general potting arrangement you describe, but they are very small pots (<3cm). I do, however, have an enormous Phalaenopsis Cleopatra growing in a 20cm net pot inside a 22cm plastic pot. The two were made to go together and sold as an orchid pot. The outer pot is opaque so I have not idea what the space between them is like. I believe it is literally packed with roots. The problem I have is that I would have to destroy a lot of roots to remove the pot, and even more if I wanted to remove the net pot. For this reason, there is no way to repot my Cleopatra without causing severe damage to the roots. You may remember my post about hating plastic net pots - no offense intended.

After my Cleopatra's next flowering, I'm going to remove the top of the plant and put it in a new pot. This will leave the two crowns growing from the lower stem in the old pot.

I'm not sure there's enough of a space between the 2 pots, so I might order a slightly larger one (is now in a 15cm) to have a wider gap for the roots to grow into.

You are not using an organic potting media, so repotting will only be needed if you want to upsize the pot or change to a mount. The problem I'm facing with my Cleopatra is that the media is organic. My second problem with this plant is that my Cleopatra "wants' to grow horizontally with leaves hanging downward - like a gigantea. I've had to use a bungee attached to the "trunk" to keep it from growing over the side of the pot. Growing over the side of the pot became a problem because it would tip the plant over.

Given that mature gigantea hate being repotted, I'm thinking that I will have to move them to a mount in a few years when they outgrow the pots they're in. Then y'all will have to kick me out.
-Keith

[tmoney]

ok, decided to join the fun. we have a hybrid gigantea alba x gelb canary from (you guessed it) our fav supplier schwerter. it was repotted straight away in our standard phal mix of about 5:2:1 bark, leca, and sphag. it has the position of honor as close to the windows (south facing) as we dare. it gets all the same watering and feeding as the rest of our phals, which is first week kelpmax and ferts in the standard ratios (weak), then 2 weeks of ferts only, then last week is plain water flush. going into fall we have now reduced and stopped the kelpmax application, and are only fertilizing everything every other week, which by December the schedule is to reduce to super weak ferts only once a month. best of all, it’s starting to put on a spike!! and yeah, it’s living up to the gigantea name as the spike is the thickest baddest spike we have seen on any of our phals. as it’s the first time blooming for this plant, hopefully it gives us something nice, but time will tell.

edit to add, curses to the link to asendorfer. cause of course i looked and they have the starship x self in bloom size for €150! the boss won’t go for that one, but daaaang that thing looks sweet!

[SADE2020]

I am still with my babies

[tmoney]

those look like nice strong seedlings, sade. i probly missed in the thread, but how long have you had them?

[SADE2020]

Thanks, they actually looking good, even bigger nowadays, since that pic is from a month ago.

I open the jar in early Dec. 2020

Very slow growers!!