James your japonica quip made me laugh out loud :)

Mike my nemesis is paphs, I struggle to keep one alive for more than 2-3 years.

Bob

Out of curiosity do you know why they are dying? I have had lots of phal troubles but I am trying them again. this time I am over wintering on heated seedling mats, and they are loving it. Fragrant phals are warm loving but winter's in my area (6a) are nothing else to that.

Hello !! I have NO idea or I wouldn’t have gave up on them. They are growing in the most perfect conditions and last year in winter did awesome. This year forget it. It’s the fragrant ones not your average ones you can buy at a box store. Those I never have a problem with. I can resurrect those from the dead.

These fragrant ones, the

PHALANOPSIS BELLINA AND PHALAENOPIS VIOLACEA

are very finicky. These in particular!
I don’t wet the crowns and they turn yellow anyways as each leaf falls off.
I water them when they start to dry and the roots just desicate or rot no matter what.

I pull one out of the pot that has just about lost all its leaves and the whole root system is shriveled and brown.
I shears starts with limp leaves , then wrinkly , then the bottom ones turn yellow until everyone of them falls off and leaves me a brown little rootless stump. Sick of it.
I have some in just pure spaghnum
Then some in half spaghnum and half bark.
Some in just bark.
Nothing keeps these plants happy.
The humidity is always above 5O. I have constant humidity going.
Fans 24/7. Lots of light. 12 hours of it. They are in the sunny south facing windows all winter.
I soak the roots in warm rain water, never tap.
I keep the temps above 65 at night and 70’s by day. The warmest room in the house.
Nothing else to do.
May the strongest one survive. No more replacing them. The fragrance is not worth these because it never wafts in the air. You have to stick your nose in them.
I can think of better fragrant things to grow to occupy their once held space. Ha
James, at least I can keep mine alive. Going on 3 years lol
Bob, never tried those by they always catch my eye at any orchid show. Been tempted but no more.
Mike

Have you tried repotting one in semi-hydro culture? They seem to like it growing in rocks with access to water. Mine did until I forgot to water.

I grow a lot of phals…50+ at the moment and I have come to the conclusion that it's species vs hybrids in this genus. Of course in any genus hybrids are usually, all around easier but I believe this is even more true in phals. I have 6 phal species. The rest are all hybrids. I have no issues with the hybrids…ever. The species give me fits. Despite the same light, air movement, temp, water as the hybrid phals I look sideways at the species and they faint.

Mike I feel your pain. For some reason paphs are my nemesis. After trying to bloom them for 3 years unsuccessfully I followed the advice of Fred Clarke (I think it was him)when he was a speaket at my orchid society. He talked about being an 80 percentile grower instead of 100% and how if despite our best efforts the other 20% won’t do well for us we should move on. So I got rid of the paphs.

Bea, I hear you. It's encouraging to see that I am not the only one having issues although I wouldn't want to add hardship on some of these on anyone, especially since they are so expensive. Many good points you made and thank you. Very painful indeed(( I know a guy that owns a HUGE greenhouse and he has problems with Phaphs in the most perfect conditions. He calls them his problem plants, now no thanks. lo

Kai, I thought of that, but then I was told by a vendor not to. Strange. The only three I have thriving are in pure shpagnum and firmly packed into small containers. The roots are a nice green when I water. I don't get it. And here I thought they like loose mixes with lots of air. Maybe not these ones? Who knows?

Mike

Bob, glad you got a chuckle, sometimes you have to laugh through the frustration.

Darlene, it’s been a while. hope you are doing well.

Mike, I‘ve been trying out a different mix after reading an article in the AOS magazine

Seems to be somewhere between sphagnum and bark. It is airy but holds more water than bark. I’ve been switching over plants that like to be on the wet side.

It’s only been a few weeks so I can’t say if it’s any good yet but there were a few things I liked right away.

First, there is a distinct color change when it dries.

Second, once you pack it in and water it, it stays in place. You can tip the pot and it doesn’t fall out. It also doesn’t float so when you soak the pot it doesn’t spill over the sides.

I‘d send you a pot full if you want to give it a try.

@James _J I am well! Please let me know what you think about the nz tree fern. I bought some a few years ago and had mixed results. I did not try phals in it since I am just adding those back.

James. I have never seen that stuff before. It looks like it great for Phals of all kinds even cattleya...I would love to give some a shot if you are willing to. Very kind of you. If I like it I will get some. Please let me know. I think you have my address. That orchid you sent me is getting huge. Ha.

Funny you should say that. I can't soak many of my plants because that is exctly what happens. The ingredients float right out and it's so frustrating. So I have had to top many off with pumice or vulcanite keep things in place ab=nd weigh the pots down so that they don't float to the surface.

Thanks James))

I found your address so I will drop some in the mail when I get a chance.

I just started using it so I don‘t know how plants will react to it, I‘ll give it a year or 2 before I endorse it.

I don’t think it would be ideal for Cattleya, I feel they want to dry out faster than this would allow. So far I‘m trying it on Oncidium types, a few Dendrobiums , Paphs, and a cymbidium.

Hi James. Thanks a lot. I’ll give it a shot to as an experiment and see how it goes. I have plenty of test subjects. This should be pretty interesting to see what happens. Going to take a pic of the one you sent me I think was the year 2019 in June to be exact. It’s growing huge. No flowers yet. It’s in my warmest room and gets lots of over head light as you can tell. Goes outside as soon as temps stay above the 40 degree mark. Thanks again James ! Hope your are safe these days.
Mike

Here you go. Getting bigger

Wow that is big. Funny how your canes stay erect, mine tend to flop over. Do you fertilize in fall/ winter?

Hey James. No kidding right ? It got a little sunburned over summer by accident but other than that the plant is going great. I actually fertilize all my orchids just a little. 1/4 strength every watering because they are under lights for a long time. So really no lack of growing. Sometimes I wonder of by nature all our orchids need less light as they would in nature to trigger blooming or just a temp change or it just doesn’t matter? Lol. I keep my lights on for 12 hours mimic the tropics. Who knows ? But it seems to be thriving. Thanks again

Try withholding fertilizer over winter, you might be pushing it to grow instead of forming buds.

As for light amounts, I think it depends a lot on where the plant is from. A plant growing in a deciduous forest will get more light in winter. Areas with rainy season will have less light because of cloud cover then more light in the dry season.

Here is the mother plant yours came from

James. my God!! I had no idea it could look like that!!

When does yours start to bloom? And what is the exact mix you are growing it in. IT seems to need a re pot really soon and I used the same one you sent it to me in. Yours seems very pleased with that mix too. Let me know and I will make some myself. Beautiful James)))

Will do on the fertilizer too. Good advice. Thanks

Mike,

Dends like tight shoes, only repot if bursting out of pot or there is a root issue. FYI: I run my lights for @16 hrs a day over winter, a little variance but not much. 14 -15 in fall early winter, 16-17 late winter. early spring.

Bob

Wow. I’m thinking that’s going to make a HUGE difference on my plants if I up the amount of light. Starting tomorrow for sure. Wonderful )))
Thanks again
You know funny things. I’m not so depressed when my lights are on. Especially with the full spectrum spot bulbs. Just seems so funny in my rooms and my kitchen. No wonder the plants do so well.
Mike

Mike,

The picture of it flowering was from June, but it does flower sporadically at other times.

Technically it’s not in any media. A few years ago the pot it was fell and broke, I didn’t have time to re pot so I dropped the broken pot into the bigger pot. By the time I got around to repotting it had attach to the new pot so I left it alone.

James, funny you should say that. I have one that has no mix at all either because I did the same thing. I just stuck a broken clay pot into a bigger one and it's thriving. I swear many orchids don't like sock on their feet, ha

Well, since this thread started, I still have the same Phals ! lol. But, some started to decline at one point, the ones in just spagnum. So I re potted into half spag and half bark, which dried out by the next day, but they seem to like it. I just have to water every day. Ugh. If I gave them more light in my very warm room, I would have to water every few hours. I don't think so.

I just might re pot again with more spag and less bark. Ha