My first keiki

[louisnel]

Hi guys I'm new here and I'm not sure where to put this post.
But anyway, I've got a purple phal at home that's I've just split, it's had this baby for a while now and I was going typo wait you reply the mother but I got impatient.

So I've just taken the keiki of and rinsed it as both plants had quite a bit of scale.

I'm going to do kokedama and see whether it will flower. Just wondering if anyone has any advice on doing kokedama with phals and how I can get rid of scale, we resorted to cutting all the flower spikes back and rubbing it with citronella, which was very harsh and set the plant back a bit but it seemed to work, but now they're back.

Any help greatly appreciated
-Me

[estación seca]

Welcome!

Scale is very hard to eradicate, and orchid roots are very sensitive to many chemicals, including natural ones. Your plant looks like it has an excellent chance with the new roots growing. You need to watch carefully. Many people find they can't eradicate scale on orchids, no matter what natural remedies they try, without commercial pesticides.

The potting method doesn't matter to phals so long as the medium is well-drained, there is a lot of air at the roots, and they get almost dry between waterings.

[louisnel]

Thanks for that,

I have it in water culture at the moment, and was just wondering weather i should leave it for a bit and see how it does of put it straight into a medium and get on the kokedama?

Thanks again

[estación seca]

Your plant is growing very healthy new roots. That makes it highly likely to survive and thrive.

I haven't tried water culture with phals so I can't address that. I'm having good growth with phals mounted, as well as in pots in sphagnum, bark and semi-hydroponic culture. I tried all these methods to see which works best for me, and so far they're all working equally well. I water them on very different schedules - that is most likely the key. I probably should buy an out-of-bloom NOID phal from a market and try water culture.

Most plants grow different kinds of roots when growing in water or solid medium. They need to grow an entirely new set of roots when you change from one technique to another. So I would stay with water culture indefinitely, or I would switch to kokedama now, while the roots are still very small.

Your plant is water-stressed from lack of roots. When phal leaves get very wrinkled they may not recover completely. Whatever potting method you select, put your plant in a very high-humidity situation for a while, to minimize water loss from the leaves, until it has more roots, and keep it warm, because phals grow faster as temperatures increase.

[louisnel]

Thanks again,

I think I'm going to stay away from bark chips for this mount incase they rot and cause problems and just go with mounting it on a bit of wood with some moss around the roots to keep them moist, do you think this is alright, could you suggest some other ways to mount plant in something similar to kokedama.

Thanks for your help
-Me

[estación seca]

There is a lot of information on this Board in the beginner forum, the thread The Phal abuse ends here.

I've never done the kokedama. If you have a fairly humid climate, you won't need much sphagnum on the mount, and moss will soon cover your mount. Pick a branch of some long-lasting hardwood.

[louisnel]

This is the peice of wood I'll be using it is a large peice of (hardwood) driftwood that I have cut.




This is where I think I'll put the orchid



I can plant something else in here

[louisnel]

Something like that

[estación seca]

Looks excellent. Phals don't spread and cover things so you could have a whole assorted orchid colony on that branch. Look here on Orchid Board in the Growing on Mounts forum.

[louisnel]

https://goo.gl/photos/eQ2jQo9rqqCEKuza6

https://goo.gl/photos/RUa1zeo6jupfS7Mw5

https://goo.gl/photos/HpCZMG4jaVBfXqUN6

(These photos were too big to put on the forum so I have posted links to them instead)


Here is the finished product, the twine is still showing through the moss but as it grows it will cover it.

Thank-you for your advice

-Me