Hello again HU-45580804. I’ve piped in on some of your questions here lately, and I’m back again. By the way, I’m Bill, may I just call you HU? All those numbers get me all confused.

Looking at the photo of your rescue Phal, I see absolutely noting wrong with it that would prevent it from being potted up right now. I have pulled many orchid plants out of pots that had roots that were in far worse shape than this one, and they took off growing as soon as they got potted and were in a good culture environment again.

Look out now, here comes the part of me that some (including my wife of 50+ years) don’t understand nor appreciate-my serious sense of humor.

I’m curious, so I’ll just ask the question. Why are you trying to teach your orchid to drink tea? I know, as a rescue plant, your plant was probably purchased in a big box store, and was grown in a completely automated greenhouse in some far, far, away country where it never saw a tree, much less actually grew on one. Your plant is certainly a hybrid, so there are no other plants genetically like it, except the several thousand clones that were probably made from its original parent, but it does have all the genes it needs to grow in the wild like other orchids.

What would life in the jungles be like for your orchid? You know, where God intended it to grow? Well, the first few drops of every rain shower would wash all the bug, bird, and animal poop off the canopy vegetation growing above your orchid plant, and spread that mix evenly over everything growing below. Your orchid would call that fertilizer, not tea, and it would thrive on the mix.

I could go on, you know, the army of little elves that run around the jungles, and people’s houses with Igloo coolers, putting three ice cubes on the roots of all orchids once a week… Enough of this nonsense, get some fir bark mix—not pine bark—and pot your orchid in that. It looks great, and is actually talking to you right now saying that it desperately wants to do exactly what you purchased it to do. It has a bloom spike, pot it up and get it into a good culture program and let it do what it is supposed to do…bloom, and be beautiful.

Have fun. Bill

Hi Bill. Thanks for your reply, and for your reassurance that the roots were ok.