Orchid advice. please

Hi all

I've only half heartedly tried orchids, once, when in Australia. Killed them all.

Daughter presents me with a very sorry looking orchid with a dead flower stalk and only 2 fronds left. Apparently it had had 5 when she was given it. Still in a ceramic container, containing the pot, and 1/2" water. Uhhhh!!!!!!

I am guessing it is a moth orchid, ( Phalaenopsis cv), but I never saw the bloom which apparently was blue (?). If so, then an epiphyte.

Bought a bag of orchid repotting mix, or so branded All it contained were 10mm lumps of pine bark and stated only use large bark as peat, moss and fine bark retain too much water and kill the roots. OK, but.....

Depotted, trimmed the dead roots and repotted it. Watered it and cleaned up.

2 hrs later I again depotted it. The bark gave BRILLIANT drainage and BRILLIANT access to air but retained ZERO moisture. The water just flowed through and any moisure left on the bark was dry 20 mins later. The bark was totally hydrophobic.

In nature the roots would be part of a living mat of mosses, dead leaves, etc "wrapped around" a branch fork. This mat would have to be free draining, very open in structure and would probably be fairly poor in nutrients.

The weather was lousey so I couldn't go to the moors and get some live sphagnum moss to experiment with, so I mixed the bark with some composted Fine Bark, I use on the garden, which retains moisture.

Thing settled down over the next few weeks, with an occasional water with a weak orchid feed and VERY weak foliar spray of the same feed..

So you gurus out there, what should I do now?

It now has 2 new, very heathly looking fronds:
Layers of new roots
One root that looks like it is trying to escape
Frond colouration

 

I find they make more roots out of the pot than in the pot.
The roots rot very easily with any moisture that hangs around, which is why the compost is so lumpy and well drained.
They only really use the compost as an anchor and in a very humid atmosphere the compost is not needed for nutrients.

I spray mine a couple of times a day with weak liquid fertiliser, making sure the roots get time to take it up.
Any watering should be allowed to drain away, and err on the side of underwatering rather than over.

 

Thanks pete.
Am I correct with the ID?

 

Yes its a Phalaenopsis.

 

It looks healthy enough and following what @pete says it should be fine, would avoid any moss as that can too easily lead to rotting.

What we have been trying the last few weeks is growing some of ours in glass jars which in a way simulates a more natural method than bark -see this recent thread and ytubes etc.

Orchids

 

Guys. You have managed to totally shoot to pieces the mental image, I had, of their natural environment, which I wanted to reproduce.

The image I had was based on bromeliads, which I've seen, in N. Queensland, Australia, in mossy, ferny forks which would, I assumed, be quite moisure retentive but free draining and vey open. WRONG!!! Phalaenopsis are NOT Bromeliads
Looking at some images of Phalaenopsis in situ really put me right.

Now I just need to make a few adjustments to my watering regime (less) while I contemplate how to improve its environment.

Thanks guys. Mucho kudos.

 

Out of direct sunlight and potential cold draughts probably the most important things.

Found the Phals did best when grouped with ferns and other similar plants, though expect you can create something similar, if not as big, with the Orchid and your Bomeliads which seem to need similar conditions, though not plants we have grown.

 

I can see the connection between bromeliads and these kinds of orchids as I think they would possibly survive in similar growing conditions.
They are mostly epiphytes so I'm not sure where the differences come in.

 

Well, a couple of months have passed. So here is an update.
After reading and inwardly digesting the comments from pete and ricky101, I got hold of some bigger, holey orchid pots and again repotted but just with bark this time.
Being a bit unstable, I inserted some canes to keep it upright.
After a 2/3 weeks it seemed able to hold itself up, so I removed the canes. It obviously didn't like being upright, as over the following weeks, it slowly but surely pulled itself onto its side. It appeared to contract its roots on one side. I know some plants have contractile roots. Do Phal?
In any case, it seems to be happy and starting to put up a flower spike.
Against all information I have seen and been given, I have it on a SW facing window sill, but pull it back a bit if it's a long hot day. It, again, seems to like it.
As for water, well a soak every week or so, but surface roots and media get sprayed at least once, most days.

Waiting for another leaf to magically appear and I hope I will get to see what colour the flowers actually are.

 

None of the ones I have are upright, I just think they naturally grow to one side eventually.

 

It does look very horizontal to say you have recently repotted it. Think with such big leaves it might be too easy for it to topple over - ?

Think we would repot it again more vertically burying all its roots down into the compost, the new spike should work its way up to the light.
If it means using a few of the green/brown canes to hold it up, so be it, better than getting damaged from falling over, though will take several months for the roots to grow enough to hold it firmly in place.

Would be a bit careful of the Sky box with all those plants and sprayers etc so close.

 

pete - I tend to agree, as many images I've seen, in situ, show then growing reasonably horizontal.
ricky101 - Nah! No worry about it going over, yet. If it starts to get a bit unstable, I'll just hang a counter balance on the pot. As I said it went from vertical to it's current position over several weeks. Just a small incremental change day by day.
Not worried about the Sky box, as the Phal is the only one that gets misted. The others are a cactus, Setiechinopsis mirabilis, I'm growing from seed. NO misting there.

 

I hang lead weights on the backs of the pots when they get unstable.

 

you will find they always try to leanover in nature they do this so as water will not collect in the center of the plant which would rot the main growth

 

I’m chuffed to see the flower spike, so whatever you are doing, keep doing it !