What's My Next Play?

[Highland Fashionista]

Hello everyone, I'm pleased to report that I'm getting better at this, and that all my chids seem to be making new leaves and roots, so thanks!

This particular Phal was a rescue from the hospital where I work. It has been putting out new roots like crazy, as well as a new leaf. Because all of the new growth is above the "bark line", they don't get as much water as those below the bark, and the plant looks quite dehydrated, as you can see from the photo. I have gently tried to train a few of the new roots down into the bark, and that seems to be going well...for now. I also know that to change-up medium mid game is to stress the poor plant....my question is, what next? So...do I wait until the roots are mega-long then try to replant? Do I let them live as air roots? I'm a bit stumped.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Can you post a pic of the entire plant with pot, please?

[rvalkenburg]

How do you water the plant, be specific and how many days do you go between watering? At least from the closeup pic the leaves do look dehydrated. You should water every 7-10 days for most Phals and how I water them is I soak the entire pot in the kitchen sink for 10-15 minutes and let it drain well, I do this every Sunday...watering day around my house takes awhile with 60 Phals. The other things you can do to help is a humidification tray, either the fancy ones you see online or make your own. Place a tray with a high lip under the plant that is the same diameter as the entire plant (leaf to leaf) not the size of the pot. place a little pea gravel and then pour water in the tray and place the pot onto of the gravel. This will allow moisture into the leaves and keep a higher level of humidity around the entire plant. You need to have 50%-80% relative humidity around Phals or it becomes a struggle to with watering or not.

[Highland Fashionista]

Hello there, here are some more pics. I water generally once a week, or when everything looks completely dry. I use a larger size bark because here in Scotland it is quite cool and wet, so I need to water about every 4 days when it is sunny out. The plants are in indirect southwest light in the conservatory, and are on humidity trays. Average humidity is about 50%.

When I water, I pour plain tempid water over the plant first to wet the roots, then give it a soak in water wit weak fertiliser for about 15 minutes. that is probably the only time the water reaches the higher roots for any length of time, as several of them sit higher than the "bark line" despite my repotting to try and accommodate a few more of them.

[tucker85]

All your plants look healthy. I love that wooden plant stand. Some phals just have a tendency to grow aerial roots. It's in their DNA. If it's now too much trouble, you can mist the aerial roots when you water the plant or even more often if you like. Do in the morning though, because misting at night can promote fungus. Good luck.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[My Green Pets]

I agree w tucker85's idea. Spray water on the roots every morning to give a bit of extra moisture. It'll most likely be dry again by the next morning.

[james mickelso]

Why is it planted so high in the pot? Are/were there good viable roots under the bark line when you planted it? If not then I would repot it and get those aerials under the bark. But what you are seeing here are new roots that take awhile to mature. The velamen takes awhile to mature and begin soaking up water. Velamen is a spong like material that absorbs water readily where the actual root takes time soaking up the water. An adaption in nature where the rain may be brief and the wind constant. If you can't repot it any deeper, just mist as often as you can with good clean water like RO or distilled. Regular tap water may have dissolved solids in it that will precipitate out and stunt the roots. That is the white precip you sometimes see on the outside of pots. Orchids are epiphyts that don't need the bark and such we put them in. You can unpot most orchids whenever you need to without much stress as long as you do it while the media and roots are dry. I do it quite often as I need to repot intoi a better pot or change media.

[Highland Fashionista]

Hi again,
Yes, there are several still-viable roots under the bark, and I recently repotted it as low into the pot as I dared to go without snapping anything off. I removed a few yellowy leaves from the bottom so gain a little more room, but I didn't want to get too carried-away. t am hoping that as things grow, it will get easier to get some of these roots "touching" into the bark, as they seem to want to grow down into it.

[james mickelso]

They don't necessarily seek to grow down into the bark but to find some solid surface to cling to. That's what they do in nature. You can try to lay something heavy on top the root to get it to grow downward but I don't think that is necessary. With this many leaves growing above the media I would opt to repot it and cut off some of the bottom of the plant. Keeping a few of the roots along the top part of the stem. Or leave it and just water it in the shower for 10 minutes. Blow the water out of the crown of the plant.

[Highland Fashionista]

Thanks everyone! I will be upping my watering game going forward.