hi, thanks for your quick answer. i‘ll try the epsom salts once i managed to convert the units to the metric system maybe i was too eager to see change after starting to fertilize. i bought the plant at the a flower shop, so i dont think they withheld fertilizer completely. but after doing my research i found out they pretty much lied to me about the whole plant („the small plant is a keiki, don‘t repot it, it has bloomed well for us for many years...“) so who knows.

as to watering: thats exaclty how i do it. once most of the roots turn whitish and there is barely a little condensation at the bottom of the vase (after some 5-10 days depending on the weather and the size of my pots), i put them to the sink and fill the vase with water and diluted fertilizer. i let them sit for a few mins (up to half an hour if i forget them) and then let the water spill trough my fingers, as to not loose the media down the drain.

it‘s only the big one that i didn‘t know how to water. the air roots were completely shrivelled and the roots in the pot were sogged. that‘s the reason i put it into the wide vase. also, because i didn‘t have a better pot.

anyway i found a better pot, got rid of some dead roots and repottet it - again. poor chid. i hope it won‘t struggle to much with all the changes i am putting it through. you are right, of course, about not cutting healthy roots. once i thought about it i kinda hated myself for giving this a tought^^ let‘s see if i manage to rehydrate it.

when i repotted it, i saw what i think will develop into yet another basal keiki. theres some new growth that‘s def not a root, right veneath where an old flower stalk had been. is it possible for a phal to spike twice from the same location abd this might turn out to be a flower stalk? or is it really a keiki? that would be the 4th basal keiki for this orchid. i got scared and took a good look at the crown, but all looks fine up there... do some phals just idk pop up one baby after the other? will they bloom while connected with the mother plant? i cant imagine cutting them free with those air roots all over the place.

also, i realized almost all of my phals‘ root tips have some kind of fur? white fluffy stuff whereever the roots come into contact with the glass or bark. is this fungus growing? i don‘t think so, as it looks pretty healthy and beautiful, but thought i‘d better ask. my mother‘s phals never showed anything like that. but then, they were dehydrated and didn‘t have all this new root growth going on.

sorry for all the questions and thanks again for your advice!
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