Re:Sphag and Bag

[tizzycat]

First I saw Cynthia P's picture and thought it looked very interesting, then I saw a post about the same subject and am very intrigued to know more?? Will anyone forgive my ignorance and enlighten me?? thank you in advance, Chris

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Sphag&Bag is for plants with no roots. It raises the humidity to 100% so that the plant does not desiccate. In this set up a plant can be maintained for many months until the plant feels its seasonal need to start a new growth for sympodials like Catts, which will then produce new roots, or just new roots for a monopodial like Phals. We use sphagnum moss to hold the water reservoir because it has some kind of anti fungal qualities. One puts a small amount of mostly wrung out moss into a zip lock bag with the plant and zip it up. It is kept out of direct sun, but in bright conditions. It is not important if the plant touches the moss or not. When the plant comes out of the bag after a long stay in it, at the first sign of rooting, they are very tender and may be prone to attach by fungus and bacteria. You might want to use a fungicide spray a couple of times.

If a plant has any amount of root, I usually pot it up, but may use a baggy over the top of the plant and pot to raise the local humidity a bit, but leave the bottom open to allow a wet/dry cycle that many orchids prefer.

If you are tempted to use any hormones, be aware that my experience is that rooting hormones on sympodial rhysomes causes them to start eyes, maybe even too many eyes. At the first sign of a new growth, you would want to wash the hormone off, as it may postpone rooting in that growth, and too much hormone will cause the new growth to produce another new growth and no roots anywhere, which was your main objective in the first place.

[slippery_biscuit]

I recently had sucess with 3-4 small catts. Instead of bagging I used those cheap Glad food containers. They stack up quite nice. Two of the plants are now in pots with early root growth, and the other two are mounted on tree fern slabs.

Jeff

[tizzycat]

Cynthia, thank you for the information.

[tizzycat]

Jeff, I really like the idea of Tree Ferns but they really do cost megabucks here in the uk. Thanks for your reply.

[PhalPal]

Great explanation Cynthia.