Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Orchid
WELCOME!
Agree with the above, your plant looks healthy and in a good shape.
The next step would be to learn the culture of caring for it that starts from removing all the moss from the roots and letting roots breath. In most cases, one would need about 1/10th (a handful) of the media that was originally in the pot. (Better yet, buy a bag of bark orchids mix in the Wal-Mart or Home Depot.) [.....] http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ends-here.html |
Umm, sorry W.O., but the O.P. said it's in bark (not moss). So, the O.P. should be ok, it's hard to tell from pics sometimes, but *I think* the bark looks fairly fresh, so it'll prob. be ok for awhile (but, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, please)... By the looks of things it's definitely better than tightly packed moss!
I also wanna add, that u prob won't need to increase the pot size when it comes time to repot... They like the conditions that being "root-bound" inside its pot provides. Also, if u can keep it warm, & humid, out of extreme temps, &/or drafts, ur flowers should last quite awhile!
& As I'm sure u know, u don't want to overwater. If you're unsure if it needs watering, a good practice is to wait another day (or two), & then water. Also, IMHO, learn to judge by the weight of the pot, (pick up the pot, to feel the weight of the pot right after u water it, & again once its dried out completely - all the roots will be silver/grey colored when dry)... This will tell u all u need to know! The skewer method is good as well, but the great thing about having a clear pot, is that u can see the roots, & if they're green, they've absorbed all of the water they can, but when they have turned a silvery, white/grey color, that means they need water... Remember, you water the roots, not the media. The clear pots will also allow the roots to photosynthesize, b/c after all, they are epiphytes.
And I see that u said you've already read "The Phal Abuse Ends Here" thread! Great!
You're off to a wonderful start! I would suggest that after awhile, you might even want to go back into it & read thru it again, b/c there's soo much info, it can be hard to absorb it all at once... When I first started out, there was soo much info in my books, that it was impossible to absorb it all at once, & sometimes I thought I had understood something, only to re-read it & realize I hadn't. Lol
If u have any other questions, everybody here is very friendly, & we all love to help, there's quite a few ppl here that r very knowledgable, & a lot of them have many years of experience w/ orchids! We all really like to see new orchids, so if u get any more, be sure to show it (or if u get more than one: show all of them
) off to us!
Glad to have u join this community!
Hope to see u stick around!
(we love to recruit new orchid "addicts" like us!
)
....I apologize for my incredibly long-winded post...
I like to try to help, but I'm never quite sure how much detail is needed....
First phalaenopsis orchid - have questions!
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