How am I doing? how to make them grow better? [lots of pictures]

[rainynightstarz]

We received a Phal from a family friend during the Holidays back in the winter of 2004-2005.
We didn't bother with it too much, didn't research on the care of culture of Orchid, so just pretty much treated as a normal house plant.
Well, after a couple month and an accident with direct noon sun light (thanks to mom opening up the blinds)
one of the newest leaves fell off, and all the rest had some damage to them too. I panicked, so i finally got off my butt and did some research and posted pictures on forums to ask other people who i should do.
I repotted it, thankfully , the roots were okay, only a little bit was rotten
so i repotted it in new medium

Then:best picture i could find, poor plant


Now: after 2 years of healing and growing

Some people have a LOT of leaves on their Phal, my old ones just kind of died? (old age and the old sun damage) How can i have more leaves? I only have 3 right now.


and some babies!
Then:


Now:

(the oldest leave lookes yellow because it got burnt by the sun. thanks again to my mom who decided to open the blinds at noon)


Then:


Now:



the Fertilizer i use:


is this Good?

How do the leave colors look?
all grown in bark
spray the leaves in the morning whenever i have time before school to add humidity
and water them about once a week, depends on how fast the plant dries.
and i add a TINY bit of half watered down fertilizer solution to the plant after watering

so how can i make my plants happier?


that is a south window, i normally have the blinds down for the phal, and since Catts are on the window thing, lights don't get blocked by the blinds, but i have tranluscent wax paper to weaken the light a bit.

[Diane]

I think you are doing very well. The color on the catts is fine. Those are tiny little guys... They are a ways from being able to bloom. But you will learn a lot of lessons by growing them. I would say your culture is fine, you could probably increase the fertilizer strength a little with the catts.

P-bulb count and bloom: When a plant is growing it starts with small bulbs and progressively puts out larger and larger growths. Once a plant gets to mature size - the latest p-bulb being full sized - the plant will start preparing to bloom. This usually is happens in catts on the 2nd or 3rd mature size pbulb, as the plant needs strength and reserves to bloom. At that time the plant may have 5 p-bulbs or 15. It depends on the plant type and how it has been grown. Early growths may have died off by then, leaving only more mature growths. Or if all the growths are still alive, you could have a full pot with only one bulb capable of blooming. When people talk about how many bulbs are needed for a blooming sized plant, they are usually refering to how many bulbs must be included in a division, or how many mature bulbs there must be.

I'm very impressed with your phal recovery. I certainly couldn't have done any better (not that I'm any hot shot phal grower...)

PS: Let us know how the SATs went!

[Piper]

You're doing fine, Yuzhi!

Diane's covered your Catt questions.

Your Phal doesn't need more leaves at the moment, because the ones it has are huge! It's happy with the energy it can generate for further growth. Just keep doing what you're doing and it will get bigger, and if it's getting enough sun it will bloom along the way.

Julie

[Brutal_Dreamer]

to Diane and Julie. Yuzhi, they look great.

Cheers,
BD

[smartie2000]

nice good looking plants there! and good fertilizer with trace elements and no urea. You have a good idea of how to grow orchids. I see a spike.
I not sure if the blue cup is the right type of pot to use because the sides are covering most of the small leaves, limiting light. But I see a big leaf sticking out and the window is southern so I think some light might go through the top. It's hard to judge. I personally would cut off the sides

[Ron-NY]

You have done well!!!! I noticed that it appears that you keep your seedling covered with an old translucent pot. Do you usually have it covered 24/7? My concern is high humidity without air circulation. It can lead to fungal and bacterial rot.

[rainynightstarz]

Diane:
Thanks for the info about the pbulbs. its really helpful
I'll add more fertilizer to the Catts. hopefully they'll grow faster. After doing some research about the flowers in the cross(since i couldn't find a picture of the cross itself) i can't WAIT to see the flowers

SAT was not bad. However, Writing an essay in 25 minutes isn't that fun. I am good at math, so the math sections are relaxing i guess. The reading passages aren't as hard as some of the practice test ones.

Piper
haha, thanks!
But my Phal leaves aren't as big as they look, i am just super good at taking pictures *wink*
the biggest is only about 11 inches, the other 2 are about 10 inches each

smartie2000
the sun during noon is VERY strong, at a south window, the side of the cup keeps it from getting too much direct light, but it is still very bright. I hope its fine right now, the color is okay.
I need the rim and the side , or the cup doesn't stay up since i made slits on the side for air circulation >.<
since the plant is still small, i am trying my best to keep it from sunburning

Ron-NY
yeah the translucent pot is on there 24/7. Its my first orchid's pot (the one that didn't survive and i was too young to bother doing research) there are LOT of holes and slits on the side and on the bottom like there is more than 20 if i count them.
its there for humidity and partially blocking some sun and acts like a tiny green house?
it's been fine for the past 2 years

[rainynightstarz]

The BIG OLD phal:
Now:


the flowers it had for 3 month (they were 4 inches across!!!):


New Phal:


the flowers it had (very cute small ones):


Okay.. . the CATTS!!!

in the picture from the first post, it only had 3 p-bulbs... now it is 5!!! and one it GIGNATIC compare to the other ones... maybe that is how big they are suppose to be for the mature p-bulbs =D


I do have one question though:
my phals. they don't seems to be growing any new roots. Although, they have a fair about of roots but they all look pretty old and wrinkled ish, not like the new fresh green pumped ones. How do i promote more newer roots?