Unless I go with Semi-Hydroponic culture (details at my website), I either
use sphagnum or a mix of 50% CHC and 25% each coarse charcoal and #4
perlite.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


wrote in message
...
On Wed, 7 Dec 2005 06:00:41 -0500, "Ray"
wrote:

Vic,

First of all, you have to understand that phalaenopsis, like most orchids,
are epiphytes, and the species in nature tend to grow attached to the bark
of trees with their roots on the surface and hanging out in mid air.
Because of that adaptation, it is important to make sure that the potting
medium you have has lots of free air space to allow gas exchange to occur
freely at the roots. I doubt if most growers would find a "mud mix" to
provide enough air flow, and even so, keeping the moisture-air balance is
tough. I'd suggest moving the plant into a more open medium - one that
still holds a lot of moisture, but that has lots of so-called
"macroporosity", spaces between the particles. There is no single best
medium for everyone, so describing more of your growing conditions is
likely
to get a variety of suggestions from us here.

Well I decided to go with the mud mix because it seemed to best choice
to replicate the original medium the orchid was thriving in, and up
until this point, it seemed to be working. As this no longer seems to
be the case, do you have any suggestions for a more open medium? Bark?
Something else?

My growing conditions are northern light window, typical southern
Ontario apartment. When the heat is on, I try to keep the temperature
between 71 and 74 Farenheit (there are no fine controls on my heater).
Since I hate a dry atmosphere, I run a humidifier usually to the point
where I can just see condensation starting to form on the windows.

Secondly, I think your attempt at remedies has negatively affected the
plant. As the aerial roots you removed were difficult due to the green
inner core, it sounds like they were still viable and functioning. The
gray
coating is velamen, which is basically dead cells that act as a sponge to
capture water and pass it onto the living tissue. If they were stiff and
wrinkly, it was likely a symptom if insufficient watering or humidity, or
both.

I have a couple of roots with the dry, scaly, grey/brown coating --
they are still there, as they just looked ugly but otherwise seem
healthy. (I am glad to hear that they are supposed to look like that.
I was a bit worried about those ones too.) I didn't cut those roots.
The roots I cut off were mushy and withered and hollow at the ends --
maybe the last inch or so of the root. In the "dead" part of the root
the core is dry and brittle and provides no resistance to cutting.

If the plant only has a single viable root at this point, I think letting
it
bloom again may mean the plant's demise. I would remove the flower spike
altogether, repot it into a more "open" mix, and get it well established
again. Once it is healthy, it will grow new spikes.

I'm not sure how many viable roots it has. There are still three or
four large, healthy aerial roots. I don't know how many are
underground, but there are some, and some large ones.

One more thing about phals roots and rotting - cold and wet is a terrible
combination, so this time of year it is important to keep the plant warm.

I don't like being cold and wet either. g As I said, I try to adjust
the watering cycle to the needs of the plant. I make sure the medium
dries out before it gets watered again. The plant determines the
schedule, not the calendar.

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


wrote in message
...
My phal has me well and truly stumped.

It finished its second blooming for the year about a month ago -- it
seems to be on a winter and summer schedule, and the summer blooming
seems to have lasted longer than expected.

Right now I'm seeing something that looks like what Kenni Judd
described in another post.

Phals with previously-bloomed spikes that are still green can make more
flowers, sometimes from the end, more often from a secondary branching
lower
on the stem, and these seem less dependent on temps, but these
bloomings,
too, are very disappointing compared to what the plant is capable of on
a
good primary blooming.
--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids


It's still a bit early to tell, but it looks like it is a secondary
branch that is forming. That's the good news.

The bad news is that its roots seem to be rotting. I've cut off a
number of aerial roots (three or four) and I'm pretty sure some of the
roots that are in the mud mixture (Pro-Mix with extra perlite) are
also rotting. The aerial roots started developing problems at the
tips/ends. The best description I have of them is that they started to
look deflated. I let the damage back up the root a bit, just to see
what would happen, but I couldn't let that happen for very long, so
out came the scissors and the razor blades. Lopping off the root was a
bit of a challenge as the centre core/vein was still very green and
very strong.

The last new leaf the plant produced is now about
four-and-a-half-inches long and still seems to be growing well. I
don't see any signs of a new one coming along yet. The plant hasn't
produced any new aerial roots in about two months, which is a long
time for this plant.

Now I've read here that phals may try to blast buds if they think they
are dying. Is this what this plant is doing or can it continue to live
and thrive even as the roots are dying?

I had decided to repot the plant, but I wanted to give it a chance to
really finish its blooming cycle and for the spike to turn brown and
dry out. Of course it's not co-operating. I don't want to discourage
it from blooming, so I'm not overly excited about repotting it now,
but first and foremost, I really don't want to let the plant die.

I've tried to figure out if the pot I chose when I repotted it this
past spring was too large, or if the medium is breaking down much more
quickly than expected (I have notice for the last six weeks or so that
it doesn't seem to be drying out as quickly, and my watering schedule
is longer than normal), or if there is something else that has
suddenly gone wrong. Does anybody have any suggestions about what is
happening, why it is happening, and what I should do next?
--Vic