Phal Projects A & B

[0r-kid]

The hubs and I went to Lowe's today to look for dirt to fill in the holes where our dogs are digging in the yard. He's certain it's only my blue heeler mix doing the digging, but I know his 1 year old german shepherd pup is in on the action too!!! Anyway...I agreed to go because I was going to get a couple of basket for my two vandas. Alas he decided to go to the sucky lowes (we have two at about the same distance...one is usually a little better than the other) and they didn't have baskets. Ah well...I think the vandas are doing fine in the pots. I have very little bark mix in with them. I did however find a beautiful phal in spike in the smaller pots...only to find it had two plants in the same pot...both with spikes! I love it when that happens. I thought the blooms were beautiful (even if they weren't very healthy looking), but the real kicker that tugged my heart enough to take them was the sphag they were packed in was soaked! When I pushed my finger into it there was actual water pooling around my finger!!! The poor darlings were drowning!

So now I have Project A and Project B. I've taken them out of the pot and am letting them air dry while some of the bark mix I picked up is soaking.

Here's a picture of the blooms...and I'll post more pictures of the unpotting process in the next post.

[0r-kid]

1. The clear pot inside of the clay pot stuffed with sphag.

2. The whole thing pulled out of the pot. It was like getting a regular dirt loving plant out of a pot. I had to keep squeezing the pot to get it out.

3. A and B separated.

4. Project A. The growth with the red circle...does that look like an old spike??? The growth with the blue circle...does that look like a new spike or a new root??? I'm hoping it's a new root. If it's a spike or anything else I'll probably cut it off.


I did cut the spike off of each plant and put them in a vase. The hubs started to freak out when I did it. He thought I was trying to kill the plant.

[0r-kid]

1. Project A after it was cleaned up. I got off all of the sphag and cut off the rotted roots. I rinsed it under the kitchen faucet to get off any rotted stuff left behind. Then I cleaned the leaves with the cinnamon/water/dish liquid mixture. After that I applied ground cinnamon to the cuts I'd made being very careful not to get it on the few roots left. I also cut off the two shriveled leaves and applied ground cinnamon to those cuts.

2. Project B.

3. This is all of the sphag and rotted roots and the two leaves cut off of Project A. I don't think I caught it in the picture, but it was an amazing amount of wet, rotted crap.

4. Project B. This one only had one root that was firm. Project B is the one that had the bloom that was slightly shriveled. It had a place where a new bloom was trying to grow on the spike though! Its leaves were also healthier than Project A's leaves...so I'm hoping it makes it out okay.

5. Project B & A in a group shot.

One thing I didn't have was some superthrive. This particular Lowe's didn't have any *grumble* so I'll have to wait until I can go to the Lowe's further north on 1604 to get some.

So that's what I have right now! I'll try to keep you guys posted on these two plants. These two bring my total plant number to 6 now. Four phals and two vandas. Hehe!

[syndywindy]

Good luck with your project, I think you rescued them just in time! After you get them potted up, I would not water them for a while. The blooms were very pretty. As to what you circled, I'm guessing roots for both which would be a good thing. It looks like you should be able to save them as there are some good roots still.

[0r-kid]

syndywindy, thanks! I plan to let them dry out a little when I pot them up because if I watered it would just wash away the ground cinnamon. The bark's soaking for now (it's been on for about an hour, and I probably won't pot them up until just before I start supper...that'll give it a good 6+ hours soaking). Then I'll start them on my once a week watering cycle. That seems to work for my two other phals very well. All I do is drench the pot and let the water run through the holes for a few seconds. Today was my watering day so they'll have the whole week to dry out. I may even wait two weeks if they look like they need it.

[mehitabel]

Good job. I think you have a good chance of pulling them thru.

When you are trying to re-root a plant, it's a race between the loss of leaves from lack of hydration and the roots forming. Until you get the new roots, you keep losing leaves.

Bag up the leaves! !!!! The photos you show are essentially no-root compared to the leaves. There's no way they can support all those leaves with no roots. Put a clear plastic baggie on each side of the plant, leaving the center open for air. That keeps the humidity up for the leaves, and helps preserve them while the roots are forming. If you don't bag them, you are going to keep losing leaves for the month or two it will take the roots to form.

If you think I'm wrong on this, at least give it a test. Put baggies on one and not on the other, and see which one keeps its leaves.

I would also make a fresh cut on the rootless part of the stem below, and put powdered root hormone on all the cuts on the stem and roots. Root hormones work, and speed up the time for roots to form, thus getting the plant going before the leaves are all gone.

Since you have so few good roots, I would take them out of the pot for a good soak in the superthrive when you get it. Soak the whole plant, including the leaves. Without roots, they will take the superthrive in via the leaves if you soak them. Then spray with dilute superthrive a couple of times a day for the first three or four days and then maybe every couple of days after that. Be sure the spray the underside of the leaves where the nurtrients are more easily taken in. You want to hurry those roots up as much as you can.

[patticake]

Nice save! I think they'll do well in your care.

[kmarch]

It all looks very thorough and well done. You have given the plants the best chance for survival. Please, if you don't mind, keep us posted on their progress! This could be an excellent teaching thread for others who encounter similar problems.

[0r-kid]

Thank you all! I'm pretty excited about trying to save these two since they're my first rescue. I've sort of decided that they're going to be slightly different plants. The color on the blooms are nearly the same shade, but they are on different parts of the bloom. Project A's blooms have two lighter color petals (pardon my lack of orchid anatomy...I'm still learning), but only half of it is lighter...like the top part of the petal is dark and the bottom is lighter. All of the flowers on Project A's spike were like that, where Project B's spike were not. Achk...hard to explain. I guess I'll just have to get them healthy so I can get some good photos of the healthy blooms to show you.

I plan to keep this thread going for these two plants rather than posting random update threads.