Phal Orchid flower browning

[Bandelierbear]

Really appreciate all this info, Carolla, as you have been providing me from the very get-go when I first posted in the Intro New Member section. You certainly have boosted my confidence as new orchid owner!

[Bandelierbear]

Today all my orchid supplies arrived. So, I got busy with my "first repotting". I had my iPad in front of me with all the instructions I so generously received from this great forum. I must say I was amazed how much sphagnum moss I pulled out of that pot...I measured it out with it being well over a full quart! And, even after 10 days being the last time I watered it, that medium was just as damp..more wet...as ever. No wonder my little Phal started showing some unhappy moments. Here are a couple of "before" photos of it after I pulled it all out. I did have to cut a fair amount of roots off. But, it appeared to still have plenty of healthy looking ones. And, the 3rd photo is the "after repotting" shot , as it sits in its new home....in a new orchid pot! So, with that, I am going to start making Shrimp Linguine for dinner, pour me a glass of vino & toast all the members who having been supporting me through my first semi-crisis.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Nicely done! Your orchid should be very happy.

cheers,
BD

[Carolla]

Looks great! Just water when it is dry or almost dry - its going to be a little bit of a shock to move into bark after the sopping wet moss - but it will handle that much better than rotting those roots. I had one Phal whose flowers we used at our wedding (38 years ago!), the one in my icon... I lost it this summer to the wrong potting medium. I was pretty sad. It had come through some serious neglect at times over the years, but it didn't survive a dense potting medium. If I have to lose it, at least I can share what I learned (largely through the help of this forum!). I've been given a ton of good information and advice here, happy to share it with others. Although I now have 5 Phals, 6 Oncidium/Odontoglossum types, 3 Cattleyas and a couple of oddball orchids, I am most comfortable with the Phals, the rest are pretty new additions in the last couple of years.

Mostly I didn't want you to worry about your plant, it looks great, is a nice healthy plant and should be pretty tolerant of mistakes.

[maggs]

I had a few phals that were doing that same thing and I decided to mount all of my phals because I am so tired of trying to determine if there was root rot and if they were too dry and I am pleased to say the roots are growing profusely and covering the coconut fiber and moss that I had used to tie them to pieces of tree branches with and I have no worries now at all, they get about three hours of sun from about ten to one when there is and well rain (as now) for almost the whole day but that is the conditions that they live in when in the natural, especially one that I had almost given up on and was worse than yours is, look for the heading "Wrinkled Leaves" on this site and you will see and I think that some are just about to bloom again a second time for this year. I AM SOOOOO VERY PLEASED THAT I WENT THIS WAY so good luck to you

[Carolla]

Oh gosh Maggs, that sounds like so much fun! Here, I don't know that would work well at all. It's so very dry (around 20% humidity most of the time) that I'm not sure I could keep them hydrated. I don't have to worry about over watering, as long as I have a well draining medium, I don't water a whole lot. Generally they do great, I just tried a new brand of medium and it was wrong for Phals.

That one in the bottom picture was given to me by my neighbor, a year later it looks like the top picture - it eventually lost every leaf and regrew. It hasn't bloomed yet, maybe next year! At least its happy and survived, I wasn't sure when I saw it. At least it just was underwatered and not rotted.

I know that every situation requires something a little different in their care. I think growing on mounts would be a lot of fun, not sure if I'm ready to try yet though!

[Bandelierbear]

Thanks so much, Bruce....I am counting on it!

---------- Post added at 07:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:07 PM ----------

Thank you so much, Carolla....and what a touching story about your wedding orchid. 38 years..wow.....so sorry to hear about that precious Phal - that had to be a tough one . Still, many congrats on 38 yrs of marriage! I suspect, if I can have good results with my first Phal, I will buy another Phal and work in that realm for quite awhile. I clearly have sooooo much to learn about orchids. I am so blown away when I read members' posts of so many, many, many types of orchids, many of which I am uncertain how to even pronounce their names....yes, the names are even intimidating at this point, let alone trying to grow that specific orchid I guess such a huge variety (which I never realized existed) and the varying challenges is widely appealing to me. My husband calls me an "Infomaniac", never tiring to learn about everything and anything. I would not say everything, but I certainly enjoy gardening...and am excited to discover this new, foreign world of orchids!

[Bandelierbear]

Brenda, I will check out your Wrinkled Leaves heading. I must say I am very interested in mounting orchids. I love its natural effect and would like to hope that they would do well amongst these old live oaks on our property....along the creek in coastal SE Texas. I don't know how Phals would do here as such, and so...I am continuing to read more about all this. Have you posted any pictures of these mounted Phals....would enjoy seeing them! I agree with Carolla, as it sounds like so much fun.

[maggs]

Jane go to the page "Mounted Orchids going natural" you will see some of the phal orchids that I have mounted, well I have about six Cattleya that I have also mounted and surprise surprise, when I was checking them over the weekend I saw two of them putting out some new growths and the root systems have been going guns too, I will put up pics of all my mounted orchids for you to see that may help you to make up your mind one way or the other, Carolla the weather is very hot here at times but like I said before my orchids get full sun from about ten in the morning until about one on afternoons then the rest of the day it is shaded when the house shades them from the sun, other than that they are outside with nothing over them, maybe you could shade them somewhere too and try maybe one and see how it goes, the beauty with mounting them is you can move them into the patio or somewhere in a cool place inside if you have no shaded area outside, but I do hope you will dare to try at least one.

[Bandelierbear]

Enjoyed the mounted orchids, Brenda....thank you! I have a way to go before I try that, but again....am very open to giving it my best shot one day.