Kokedama mini phal
 

I have 2 mini phal that I repotted to kokedama. They looked happy initially but after about a month have stopped growing. Was the kokedama potting a bad choice.

Also, on one of them a small hole appeared on a leaf & then edges of that leaf appear to be eaten. I have put out snail bait & searched for signs of snails w/o finding any.
Could there be a chewing insect inside the moss of the kokedama. Any ideas about what is going on?

The inside of the package is also sphagnum moss or did you let some bark inside?

With your weather ☁️, the whole thing wrapped in sphagnum could creat rot and root damage due to the lack of air flowing, specially if the plant was used to bark and less packed medium and didn't went through an adaptation process.

Kokedama works for me with other type of plants and also with fine root orchids.

I'll suggest to unpack and check! You can always rap it again, less tide and with a filter bark inside.

Are you talking about true kokedama (ball of soil covered in moss), or the japanese sphagnum mound technique they use for orchids? I'm not sure if true kokedama is suitable for orchids since there's very little airflow to the center of the ball.

Kokedama for mini phal
 

I did the Japanese technique of wrapping entirely in New Zealand spagnum. I don’t remember what medium they were in before but I think it was spagnum.

The munching does sound like a snail. Bush snails aren't attracted to snail bait. You can water the whole thing with coffee. Caffeine will kill them.

I also wonder what you mean by kokedama - could you show photos? How much sphagnum did you wrap around the roots?

Wait, really? I thought coffee was super high in nitrogen and kind of acidic. Won't that have an impact on the orchid itself?

Read my response in today's Sharry Baby thread.

The roots were exposed & then wrapped with New Zealand spagnum moss to form a small ball shape, then green sheet moss on top & secured by tying with fishing line. The course was taught with neo finitia which is doing fine. I decided to do the same thing with mini phal but they may not be candidates for this technique—I didn’t ask the person who taught the webinar!

I suspect, as Camille wrote, the roots are being suffocated.

Could you post a photo? What you describe is still not the traditional sphagnum mounding technique, often used with Neofinetia. For one, it doesn't involve green sheet moss. Sounds like you have used a sort of true kokedama, which is a solid ball.

I use the sphagnum technique for my Neofinetia and the key feature is that it has a hollow core. This is critical for the success. The mound should then be placed in a pot with large holes in the bottom, to allow sufficient air circulation through the hollow core. When done properly and watered correctly, plants do very well. It is also used a lot for Phal (sedirea) japonica so it should work for normal Phals as well.