Hello - Phalaenopsis Propagation and Transpanting Questions

[gitano]

Hello - My first post here. To say that I'm 'new' to growing orchids would be wrong, but it wouldn't be "right" either because of the word "growing". What I have been doing that's not "growing" orchids is killing orchids for about 30 years. (If you are not interested in my background or the "history" of the plant in question, you can skip to my questions below in red.)

I have a pretty good "green thumb" and there are darned few plants I can't get to grow, propagate, and flourish. Orchids have been one of the "darned few". I love orchids and have been 'pursuing' them for at least 40 years. To date, I have NEVER been able to get one to live more than about six months, and those that lasted six months were on a downhill slide not long after I got them.

Ever the optimist, every few years I buy another one wishing - with ever-decreasing hope - that this new one will "work out". Well, one finally did. It must be a super-orchid because it has survived some 16 months now and has actually survived two Alaskan winters. (Indoors of course.) This is such an impressively tenacious plant that I have been encouraged to actually join an orchid forum and seek assistance with "what to do next" before I figure out a way to kill this one. I've grown quite attached to it for it's hardiness, and would hate to see ignorance on my part kill it now.

A brief background on this particular plant:
1) I bought it at a local "grocery store" - Fred Meyer - and it is still in the original GLASS "pot". About a 4" cube.
2) As I said, it's about 16 months in my house at this date.
3) It was blooming when I got it, and after that initial bloom, it has not bloomed.
4) However, it HAS put out LOTS of runners. (There are pictures below.)
5) Initially, I simply watered it (well-water) when the sphagnum was dry. Then I fertilized it once a month in the summer with "Miracle Grow". Then I heard that orchids like "fish water", so for about the last 9 months or so it has been getting water from my fish tanks.
5) It has grown, but it has not blossomed.
6) It has produced LONG and many runners. At least I think they are runners. At first I thought they might be flower stalks, but no such luck.

Here are my questions:
1) I THINK I want to transplant it. Primarily for ITS sake. If "y'all" suggest otherwise, I won't. I'm concerned about "shocking" it when I remove it from it's current glass container. How concerned do I need to be about "shocking" it by removing it from its existing container?

2) Should I put it in a water-tight container like the one in which I received it and it has be growing for the past 20 months?

3) Could I cut off the "shoot" and "root" it in a separate container?

4) Can I encourage the runners to make new plants by wrapping apical meristems in wet sphagnum or terminate them in adjacent pots until they produce a new plant?

Here are pictures of the plant.
Or not. Apparently "new" members can't post images if those images are hosted off-site (photobucket). That's 'unfortunate' - to say the least and seems counter-productive. I was trying to save this site storage by using an off-site host!

So, before I get a bunch of grief as a "newbie" for not posting images: I tried, but the site wouldn't let me. Therefore, I cannot show you the "shoot", the "runners", the "ripe-banana-colored" leaf, the nature of the existing sphagnum, and the container it is currently in.

I would REALLY like to not kill this plant, and 'your' help in preventing that is greatly appreciated.

Paul

PS - Good grief! After the "Newbies can't use urls" error, I got an "error" message telling me "The number of tags you tried to add to this thread exceeded the maximum number of tags by 4." When IN FACT, EYE (for emphasis) didn't use ANY tags. All of the tags were generated by the system, and in fact I REDUCED the superfluous ones. This forum makes posting difficult. The fact that I bothered this far should be some indication how important this plant is to me.

Paul

PPS - I see that the "edits" I made to the tags also was ignored. The superfluous ones still abide. I own and operate a vBulletin forum. "You guys" must really have some SERIOUS "hacking" problems to make this level of restraint/control necessary!

Paul