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Old 12-02-2003, 09:55 PM
Ted Byers
 
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Default ... and another one bites the dust.

Geir Harris Hedemark wrote in message ...
As Ray said, phals will loose their roots when repotted into
hydrophonic media.

That makes the fourth phal that has died promptly on entering my
flat. After one or two weeks the roots just rot, even if I just leave
it alone in its pot.

My Dendrobium has started another something (either a new spike or a
keiki, time will tell), and my three epidendrum keikis are growing
like mad - the rhizome is growing about 1mm each day. I suspect the
250w HID fixture I got just recently to be responsible.

I expected the phal to respond like the dend. I had to repot that one
immediately, and put it into a clay pot with primeagra-like pellets as
a medium. It just continued flowering, seemingly without any ill
effects. It is a large plant, but it has been standing in that pot
since before christmas. I don't expect it to keel over and die any
time soon.

What is it with me and phals? Could it be the temperature? It is about
20C/68F in the room I have my plants.


It may well be how it is potted. As you already pointed out, phals
will loose their roots when repotted into hydrophonic media. But,
given you note that they rot on you even if you leave them alone in
their original pot. What you don't say is what they were potted in
when you bought them, and that may be significant.

Something I have begun to notice, and in retrospect it makes some
sense given the problems I had in the fall with phals, is that when I
get phals that had been potted like most of the dendrobiums I have
bought (packed tightly in sphagnum in 10 cm clay orchid pots (i.e. the
ones with the slots in the side), the phals suffer significant stress;
and until I clued in on this, they died. I suspect that the folk who
packed them in the sphagnum packed them so tightly that even though it
takes three to four days to dry out when the humidity is so low, there
is effectively no air available to the roots while the moss is moist.
The latest phal I got is now showing signs of stress (the bottom two
leaves are beginning to yellow, and several buds have blasted), so I
am going to repot it now in coconut husk chips, even though it is in
bloom (there are well over a dozen flowers open in all their glory,
with more on the way). It may also be that this winter, being as cold
as it has been, the house is very dry even though my humidifier is on
all the time. I fear that if I leave it too long, it will die. But
if it responds in the same way to repotting that my Dtps. Nobby's
Pink Lady x Dtps. New Cinderella x Taisuco Happy Beauty Valentine did,
the inflorescence may well start growing again.

In my environment, any orchid planted in coconut husk chips seems to
do extremely well. Not one of them is showing signs of stress. But
of those planted in moss, ONLY the dendrobiums seem happy.

Cheers,

Ted