Phals

[janinoz]

Hello everyone, I'm new. I live on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, where we grow most of our orchids outdoors and mine are surviving the spring coastal winds very well. However, I have two phals indoors, in a room with an east window, which I will have to leave for five days over Christmas. They both have quite a lot of roots above their medium bark mix, which dry out quickly, but there are plenty more roots in the mix. My question is, will they last that long without watering? I plan to soak and drain their bark mix the day before we leave and hope they will be all right until we return. Am I doing the right thing?

Also I have cut both above the next node down after flowering, about a month ago. Both seem to have found the shock a bit much and the new growth at the node has come to a stop, although it is still there. How long will they be before they grow a new stem and flower again?

Regards

Jan

[mayres]

If you give your phals a good soak before you leave I can't imagine them not making it five days without being watered? I have had most of my office phals in medium bark and they go a week with no problem at all - sometimes longer. You are never guaranteed that a spike will produce another sub-spike once you prune it back. Sometimes they will bud out again right away, sometimes they will just sit there and do nothing until the next normal bloom cycle and then grow out in lieu of another new bloom spike, and sometimes it will never branch out. Patience. The plant will do what it will do. Of course the specific genetics involved and how "happy" the plant is in its current environment are huge factors in the results as well......

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

A little plastic wrap draped loosely (make sure there are some holes) over the plant will slow down the evapoartion rate.

[janinoz]

Thank you mayres and Cynthia Prescott for your replies. Since posting the query I have heard from our local orchid society, advising members in general, that the best thing to do over Christmas - and many people go away for a few weeks as it is summer and long school holidays here - is to leave the orchids as they are. I have planned to do as you suggest, mayres, and give them a good soak before leaving them.

Re the plastic wrap, that is another great idea, but I'm a bit reluctant to do that as it might encourage fungal growth. We once did that one Christmas, when all neighbours were also going away, for a few days with some pot plants and most survived, but I lost the fuschia - doesn't like humidity, I now know! - and haven't tried to grow one again! I do appreciate your suggestion, though, Cynthia.

I had guessed that the new growth on the phals will be very slow and might not happen at all. The new growth is still there, and still healthy, just staying the same. One fine day, maybe, something will happen! - or maybe not. My outdoor orchids, numerous varieties, after also being well soaked, will be abandoned to the, often quite hot, winds. They have stored water in their stems and - well - if they can't survive a bit of neglect they're not too welcome here anyway! Survival of the easiest to care for!

Orchid club have given us all 2 very small oncidiums for, I think, a growing competition. They are in sphagnum moss and they advised us to leave them there while on holiday. It keeps amazingly wet, it is life sphagnum moss. Will have some fun with those next year!

Next year we hope to make a trip to the UK, back to our home town and stay a lo-ong time with friends and relatives. I hope the indoor orchids can be farmed out to another orchid club member and the outdoor ones should survive in the southern winter with weekly watering by a neighbour.

Again, thank you for the ideas.

janinoz

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I am sure the Phals can live for the few days that they will be dry on the water reserves in their leaves and roots. But as to orchids handling the humidity, you would be surprised at what is done with 100% humidity, which I was not recommending, with the holes I suggested. But if you ever have a rootless orchid, due to your mistake, or that of a previous caretaker, there is a technique called Sphag & Bag, were the plant is put into a zip-lock bag with a little mostly wrung out sphagnum moss, touching the plant or not, and the bag zipped up. With the interior of the bag a 100% humidity, the plant sort of remains in stasis for as long as it takes to get to the season for new growth and then to produce roots on the new growth. New Zealand moss appears to have some anti-fungal properties. These plants do not succumb to rot unless rot was already in existance in the plant. Ocasionally a little fungus will grow on the exterior of the plant or roots, but it is my belief that that this is due to fertilizer remaining on the exterior of the plant, and the plant should be taken out of the bag, the fungus washed off, and the plant returned to the bag. This has never happened to me as I am light on the fertilizer.

Because of the good experience I have had with this technique, I have started going off for up to a week for orchid shows and bagging my mounted orchids and a few others that dry too fast in small pots. The potted plants are mostly bagged, but the bags are left open at the top. The mounted plants are watered, bagged, and zipped up. Those mounts that hold a lot of water, like treefern, are blotted off with a few paper towels before being fully enclosed in a zip-lock bag. I've used this a couple of times so far for about 6 days each, and everything seemed quite happy on my return. However, this is not something to do in a high light situation, as you don't want the plant getting too hot in the bag, so some of mine get moved in with the Phals, or lowered into a cooler environment below the bench.

[janinoz]

Thank you for your very informed reply, Cynthia. Yes, I realise you mentioned having holes in the cover, which I would certainly do. I just feel a bit nervous about doing the covering, all the same. After all, fungus spores of all sorts are in the air all the time and I prefer to be careful. Thanks for the suggestion for covering a rootless orchid to grow it. One of my phals is getting very tall and I would like to cut it off above one of the nodes and see if the cut piece will continue to develop the bud on it, leaving the rest of the plant at a more reasonable height and giving me another plant, so I might try it after Christmas.

Regards

janinoz