mottled leaf phal

[lyzzy]

I bought a Phal at my local Walmart, and i believe it is a P.schillerina. It is in moss, of course, but my question is, when i repot it after it is done blooming, do I use moss or regular orchid bark? I looked at pics others have of this, and i think they have them in moss, but unsure. I am new here, so I would appreciate advise! It is blooming very well. i was surprised to see them at walmart. they had two of them, and my niece bought the other one. No camera, so i can't post pics.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I would use bark.

Without a photo, your plant is impossible to ID, (if that was what you wanted to also have done).

[Orchidreamer]

I have seen mottled leafed plants at big box stores, but only occasionally. Your plant is most likely a hybrid with schilleriana in its parentage, but even with a photo, it can be difficult to ID for sure because of the huge number of similar-looking phal hybrids.

You can repot into bark if you're more comfortable with it. Bark dries out faster, so you run a lower risk of rotting the roots. When I first started growing phals, I overwatered all the ones in sphag. Not saying that sphag is always bad, because my current phal species love sphag.

[lyzzy]

Thank you both for your quick replies. I have 8 orchids, all but one were bought at big box stores. One I do know is Oncidium Sherrie Baby, as it had a tag with it, but the others are all NoId orchids. I do have an Encyclia Cochleata, that I have had since the weekend Princess Diana died, in 1997. She was my first Orchid, and looks pretty rough, as they only produce 2 leaves on each psuedobulb, and then a bloom spike, and the leaves eventually die back and it sends out another bulb. It did produce a baby on top of one of the bulbs where a spike had been, and i potted it up , very tiny, and it has produced another bulb off side of it. Since I can't be sure of the type of phael that I just got, I guess I will have to give her her own name! The blooms do have a prety scent.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by lyzzy

I do have an Encyclia Cochleata, that I have had since the weekend Princess Diana died, in 1997. She was my first Orchid, and looks pretty rough, as they only produce 2 leaves on each psuedobulb, and then a bloom spike, and the leaves eventually die back and it sends out another bulb. It did produce a baby on top of one of the bulbs where a spike had been, and i potted it up , very tiny, and it has produced another bulb off side of it.

It is normal for Encyclia cochleata (aka Anacheilium cochleatum) to produce a whole bunch of leaves as a new growth, and then only be left with 2 leaves as the pseudobulbs reach maturity. As each growth ages, it will naturally drop the leaves on top of the pseudobulb.