Phalaenopsis Sogo Yukidian v3

[james mickelso]

This looks like a very nice phal. Flowers are beautiful. I would wait a week or so before cutting them off. Enjoy them for awhile. It won't hurt the plant at all. I don't know where you live or I would give you some growing advice. This is a very changing time of year for most of us. If you want to cut the flower spike, cut it under water. In other words, cut it under the sink faucet with water running across the stem where the cut is to be made. It will keep air from entering the wound before you put it in the vase. Air blocks the uptake of water in the vascular structures in the stem which replenishes what the flowers transpire. The flowers will last twice as long. Same for any cut flowers. The catt needs more light than the phal. Once you cut the roots on the catt, wait a day to repot it or at least wait a day before you water it. That way the plant seals the root's cut ends which will help to keep any bad guys out of the plant.

[RandomGemini]

Thank you! I'm really looking forward to seeing it bloom again. I'm not usually a fan of a plain white flower, I like color, but the size of these blooms just made me smile.

I'm in eastern Washington state. It's usually very arid here, but we've had an unusually humid summer and a lot of rain. It doesn't normally rain here between June and October. Right now, it's 91 degrees and the humidity is at 21% and it will go up to 50% humidity tonight, which is odd for this time of year.

I'm actually pretty worried about my orchids for this coming winter. We're far enough north that on the winter solstice, we only get about 5 hours of daylight and even then, it will be overcast most of the time from October, into March. So, I'm researching some grow lights.

[james mickelso]

Spokan is pretty dark most of the winter so lights would be a good deal. Don't sweat the low humidity. the orchids should stay on the dry side unless you can keep them warm. They don't need anymore than say 50*f but if you can get it to 60 then they will be ok. The phal will be the tough one but that is a relative term. Warm and relatively moist down in the root zone will give you flowers by march. The key to good flowers on phals is good nutrician during the warm bright months regardless of the winter months. Phals store energy in their leaves and roots. Nice supple leaves and numerous roots will bring forth good flower production when it gets warm. Good light and warmth in winter can also give you good flowers. But watch for the media staying too wet during low light because root rot can set in quickly. The leaves don't care what the humidity is as long as the micro climate at the roots is somewhat damp. Not wet but damp. The roots can dry out too and not suffer but damp is better. Cold or cool is the problem. The perfect conditions for rot. Keep us informed.

[RandomGemini]

They should be fine. I'll be growing indoors. There's no way I could manage to heat a greenhouse or other outdoor structure to 60 degrees up here without creating a fire hazard. We keep the house at 68 in the winter and the furnace zapping all the humidity out of the air this winter should help as far as keeping them from being too damp, but I'm glad you mentioned it! Something for me to watch out for, for sure. I've been watering 2 or 3 times a week, because I'm seeing roots drying pretty quickly with the AC and all.

Thanks much!

[Island Girl]

Originally Posted by RandomGemini

Yeah, this phal does still have a good amount of roots, in spite of my cutting about half of them away. I would say it has more than ten, possibly even twenty.

My daughter came home with a catt tonight that.. wow. Let's just say that I'm making her clean my potting area with a 50/50 bleach solution, just in case, because I know it had pill bugs in the media and lord knows what else was in there. At least this phal isn't that bad!

Yea, if it has ten to twenty good roots, then just leave the spike... If it goes downhill, then cut, but I think that it will be fine with that amount of roots!

[RandomGemini]

YAY! I love you for saying this! I was going to be heartbroken about cutting that spike! For some reason, I'm really attached to this little guy. It's like the little phal that could or something. LOL!

[RandomGemini]

All righty Good news! I have a NEW ROOT growing on this rescued phal! I haven't killed it yet! WOOHOO!

[RandomGemini]

Just an update on this phal. It's getting close to time to cut the spike. The last bloom dropped last night. I'm going to wait for the spike to dry out, because the plant seems to be really happy. It's putting out new roots all over the place. Once it got started, it was sort of a cascade effect and now it's growing roots like crazy. I think this is probably the last update I need to make on this thread until it reblooms, which I just have a feeling it will do for me in the spring. This phal is very happy where it's at, so I'm going to leave it the heck alone and let it be where it's happy.

Thank you all for your help with this orchid! I'm so glad to see it growing like this.

[RandomGemini]

Wanted to post an update on this guy, as I was thinking about it earlier today. I still have the plant. I ended up repotting it a second time, because it wasn't stable when I first potted it. I think I just wasn't very good at potting up orchids. The second repot a month or so after I last updated this thread, seems to have done the job. I have lots of root growth going on here.

This plant still only has three leaves. I've only seen one new leaf grow since the plant was purchased. I keep hoping it will grow another one.

Still, I do not believe that it will spike for me this year. It's going to take some time to recover from the abuse it received in the hardware store, and I expect repotting it a second time and it being unstable in the pot previously, set it back a bit.

I'll update again if there's any progress! Thank you all for your help with this plant! I've learned a whole lot from this little phal!

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Very nice Phal!