Crown Rot Proof Surely? =)

[tom499]

I thought I'd give my oldest Phal a taste of the old country and hung the pot upside down hehe. It was close to my grow light and put out a spike some time after that aimed straight for it!

I moved it higher and further away, and the spike is now heading for the window.

Should be a nice displace when it blooms. I water it the same as my others, dunking the pot when its gets dry.

[nenella]

Ingenious ! look forward to seeing it in bloom !

[patticake]

Tom!! How cool! That sweetheart is going for the light! I love to experiment with the chids to see what they like...

You've found some very interesting information!!! Thanks for the pics! Can't wait to see the blooms...

[BillC]

I think you could be starting a knew fashion Tom. Many people will be turning the pots upside down just to see if they can better growth and bigger flowers. And if they don't secure the plant properly in the pot and the whole thing falls out guess who will be blamed?
Of course the mental hotfoot that you have produced is why you decided to do it. It reminds me of William Webb who, during a game of football, picked up the ball and ran with it, starting a sport which has covered the globe. I think it is a great idea. (I expect the title is the answer)

Bill

[bkim]

It's sort of a pot-mount hybrid. You get the water retention of a pot and the drainage of a mount. I suppose you can make a hole in a slab of plywood or other flat surface the exact same size as a pot, stick the pot into the slab, and hang the thing vertically. Pot-mount!! Just need something to prevent the medium from spilling out... coir? I might wanna try this.

[solay]

Very interesting. I think the spikes going to look great once in bloom.

[evagentry]

Interesting concept Tom, it looks a bit odd, how do you keep the medium in? "A taste of the old country", that was cute!

[sandra]

Evagentry beat me to it....how is the medium staying put, Tom?

I'm tempted...

[pitik101]

i usually have my phal potted or mounted this way....to counter crown rot. I do this since I just hose all my plants when watering (2x a day) .

only draw back is that when in bloom i cannot take the plants inside and put it in a table. add points to "wild" appeal

[articuno75]

Curiosity has too, got the best of me. How did you get the medium to stay in place and keep the plant from falling out? This would be something very interesting to do and is making me brainstorm.

[pitik101]

jenny....in my case ..if mounted...the medium..usually just moss...are tied with the plants.

if its potted...i dont use small or medium size media...i usually use diced up pieces of fern slabs and just use make ways to have them secured in the pot. when plants mature...their roots will cling into the media and will take care of it themselves.

another good medium for pots/mounts for this method are coconut husks...whole one if available

[slippery_biscuit]

Looks like there is a green wire keeping the goodies in. I suppose the roots keep everything glued together and a single device (the wire) keeps the mass in the pot.

My question is how do you water the arrangement?

I have to try an inverted phal with one of mine, recently out of bloom.

[tom499]

slippery_biscuit has got it in one

The main reason I chose this plant for the experiment was that it had such a good layering of roots on the top, which help the media in the pot when I knocked it over one time.

To make it sturdier from the photo you can see I've used some mesh, and chunky bark as a top layering to keep the smaller pieces in.

The stuff rarely falls out, and I can turn the pot back round the normal way to soak, then hang it up again afterwards.

The reason for doing it? Apartly because I am fed up of knocking the pot over The second is that as I don't have a greenhouse so I cannot grow Phals mounted the usual way, but this way I can get some of natural growing style, but still keep them in a pot so I don't have to water everyday.

[evagentry]

It sure all sounds reasonable Tom, I hope it continues to work for you,But if it were me, I would bump into it instead of knocking it over!

[FLaCo]

Haha, I thought of this last night and now I see you're post. I plant on doing a Phal mount inside a clay pot with just spag and tying it against the bottom of the pot (top when upsdie down) and have the roots grow through the drainage holes (eventually). I will make a post today.

[11Orchid126]

What's all this got to do with the original topic "crown rot"?