Problem with new growths

[Kyle]

Hi,
I've been raising orchids for a while now, but have only had paphs and phrags for about a year.
The new growths on one Phrag and one Paphs don't seem to be developing normally. Can you guys take a look at these pictures and tell me what you think.
Thanks
PS. This will be my frist time posting pictures, so bare with me...

1st-
Phrag Hanne Popow


The new growth has looked like that since august. It gets taller, but the leaves aren't opening. I re-potted it last weekend and it has lots of healthy roots. Its in bark with a thin layer of sphag on top. Prior to repotting it was in a shallow dish of fresh water at all times. Now I water every two days (when the sphag dries out).

2nd-
Paph Pinnochio


This little guy had some root problems. As you can see not much left. Its been in sphag (without bag) since june. It hasn't done much, but now I'm noticing a new leaf forming. So I took it out of the sphag to see if it started growing roots, but no, nothing. What to do?

3rd-
Paph Macabre






The leaves on the new growth on this guy arn't opening up like they are on my other paphs. And it emerged really high on the plant, whel about the 'soil line'. Will this pose a problem when it comes time for this new growth to make new roots?

Thanks for all the help!
Kyle

[Kyle]

Why didn't the pictures work?

[uncasteeb]

I,m no expert but the new growths on my Phrag SA grow similarly I.E. the new growths are upto nearly 12" high but they haven,t opened.
As for the Paphs they look fine to me.

[LJA]

Kyle, the only one of those that looks problematic is the Pinnochio; the others look fine to me too. New growths on Phrags will often grow straight up like that for a while before the leaves unfurl, so no worries on that score. Try sphag-n-bagging the Pinnochio, bare root as it is. Don't let the moss come into contact with the roots--the moss is just in the bag to keep the humidity level high. You might also dip the plant's base in some Rootone or other kind of root stimulator before bagging.

[Jmoney]

Like everybody said, the first and last photos look fine to me. Hanne Popow is a notorious climber. Each growth will be about an inch higher than the previous. A few paphs will do that as well. Also, the vertical height of growths may vary considerably according to the stance of the leaves, even in the same plant. i.e. a plant that produces a growth with low-lying horizontal leaves may put forth additional growths with a more upright habit.

[RSJ]

What do you do with the "notorious climbers" as far as potting goes? Since they need lots of moisture I would think that mounting them wouldn't be the way to go but then to make sure the new growth roots get into the medium wouldn't the older growths need to be below top level (and then subject to foliage rots)? And then I would also think these climbing phrags/paphs wouldn't be good candidates for s/h, right?

Ronnie-Sue

[uncasteeb]

Having the new growths climb in s/h isn,t a problem really , i just bury the older growths a bit(completely sometimes).I have Onc,s which have completely buried PB,s & i had to partially bury the first growth on my Phrag
SA so that the latest growth was actually touching the top of the s/h medium.
The buried first growth(about 2" deeper than medium level) has produced a very nice new growth so it doesn,t appear to bother the plants.

[Jmoney]

you end up either having to slope the medium or burying the old growths. the old growths don't seem to be that rot prone, since in nature they get buried with accumulating leaf litter (and hence the adaptive mechanism of climbing). the old growths tend to die off rather quickly though, within a year or two of blooming for the climbers i have at least.

[LJA]

I've done both: buried the old growths (which I think looks terrible) and mounted the plants. The mounting works fine as long as you surround the bases of the growths with enough sphag to keep the root zones moist between waterings.

Frankly, despite their nice blooms, I find climbing Phrags to be one of the more serious pains in the butt....