How would you pot a Phal. gigantea seedling?

[estación seca]

A year or so ago Carter & Holmes offered Phalaenopsis gigantea seedlings to their mailing list customers. I didn't buy one because I didn't think I could provide high enough humidity. But, now my growing area is a lot more humid. I'm thinking of getting a seedling.

I've read Peter Lin's detailed article about this species, its progeny and how to grow them:
Big Leaf Orchids: Phalaenopsis gigantea and its hybrids

So my question... how would people manage a seedling of this... one arriving in a 2" pot? Basket? Pot? Peter Lin wrote in he had switched back from sphag baskets to plastic pots.

[AnonYMouse]

If the environment is appropriate and I had access to any media, I'd mount it on a big chunk of tree fern.

[jkofferdahl]

That's going to become an absolutely huge plant! Of all of the various Phal species, gigantea is the one I will naver have enough space to accommodate. The blooms are, I think, among the most wonderful of all the Phals.

I agree with Ree on mounting the plant on a big chunk of tree fern. Either a basket or a pot will quickly become too small. A raft of osmunda about 8x8 and at least an inch thick would give the plant plenty of growth space, and Phal roots love osmunda.

[estación seca]

In the article Mr. Lin mentions the enormous root system several times. Do people succesively attach outgrown mounts to new ones, to avoid prying off the mount? Is 8" (20cm) x 8" the final size, or is that the starter mount?

[AnonYMouse]

I never found your link so don't know your reference.

Tree fern is great because it doesn't decay as fast as most mount material. I can't say if 8x8 is the final size you want. I think the problem will be finding large sizes of the kind that don't crumble. (I've asked in the past about differences and the consensus was where on the trunk the dense stuff came from.)

You could always tack on larger pieces as the plant grows. You can put the whole thing in a basket. I like dangling roots, so if you start with a large enough plank, just let the roots cover it. You could get pretty creative framing it.

*For the benefit of newbies reading this* The plank/raft/chunk of a mount is just to anchor a plant. Pots and baskets do the same, just in a different orientation. Phal gigantea grows pendant making mounting more ideal (IMO). It also grows huge making it a challenge.

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by estación seca

In the article Mr. Lin mentions the enormous root system several times. Do people succesively attach outgrown mounts to new ones, to avoid prying off the mount? Is 8" (20cm) x 8" the final size, or is that the starter mount?

8 x 8 should be large enough to carry the plant. I have cornu-cervis on 3 x 6 inch osmunda mounts. CCs also produce pretty amazing root systems and mine have taken the mounts over. I'd expect a gigantea to grow onto 8 x 8. In so far as replacing the mount, with osmunda I've just attached new rafts to the old.

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

I never found your link so don't know your reference.

Sorry. I found it via a Web search, not browsing the Big Leaf Web site.

I normally don't deep link to commercial sites because it's rude. The proprietors generally want people to see the home page first. And, sometimes they have older things in their server directory they don't want to link to now. These pages can often be found with a Web search, but not from the current Web site of the business.

But if you do a search on "Phalaenopsis gigantea Giant of the genus" you will probably find it.

Sorry to be so elusive, but I'm trying to be a good citizen. Mr. Lin, if you're reading, I think it would be a great article to make available on your current Web site.

[jkofferdahl]

First thing that came up in Google here