Sphag in a bag worked! Now what?

[Yiu Lin]

Hi everyone,
I tried the sphag in a bag trick and to my amazement, it worked!
After about a month or so, I've seen 2 new growth. one of them even has some tiny root buds.

So what are the next steps? Do I need to leave it in the bag until the roots are longer and then pot it up?
I saw some mold growing on 1 of the other canes, that was inside the bag, so I'm not keen to leave it there. (I've since thrown that cane out and another one that was rotting. But there are still about 3 old canes left inside the bag that so far have not shown any growths).

If I can pot this cane up already, do I need to cut it into 2 separate pieces, for the 2 growths, or should I just leave it as it is. And what type of medium should I use? Sphag again?

Any advice would be much appreciated. thanks!

[butt0n]

I would wait until the roots get a tad bit longer, but not too much. After that you can pot them up. I tried using coir to get my roots started back up and it seemed to work pretty well.

[Anton]

I agree, leave it alone until you get roots around 5cm then you should be safe to pot it.

They need to be able to hold the plant in the potting mix. If they are too short, the plant will just keep falling over, or the roots will keep drying out.
It will grow roots where it wants to, then you can decide which way you want to go.

If it sprouts roots in 2 places, you can divide it and make 2 separate plants, otherwise leave it as one.

Been there, done that, talking from experience.

[Yiu Lin]

Great, thanks for the tips button and Anton.

I'll pop this fella back in the bag then. I'll do up a new bag, since the old bag has the other canes in it, and is looking a bit mouldy.
Don't want to risk losing this one, before it's started.

[digitalgate]

wow, yours work. My don't. glad it work for you.

[Yiu Lin]

The force is strong with this one!

[digitalgate]

aaa... padawan in the making.beware the dark side. Proud do not..

[Yiu Lin]

The first sphag in bag cane died when I took it out and put it in a normal pot. The roots dried up and turned black. I guess I didn't wait long enough for the root to establish themselves better, before taking it out of the bag.
So when another cane in the sphag in a bag started showing growth, I tried a method that combines sphag in the bag with potting medium. It's worked well for me, and means that I don't have to do a repot.

What I do is fill a pot with normal medium (in this case charcoal and wood bark), then put the cane and added moist sphag on the top. Then I placed the whole pot into a transparent plastic bag, and tied it up. Once a new growth appears, the roots will naturally grow into the medium. I just need to be careful to not move it about too much. Once the roots are better established, I then started opening up the bag by a bit, to acclimatise it.

Today is the graduation of my orchid - I've taken it out of the bag completely. Once it gets bigger, I'll probably remove the sphag, as I find that rots my orchids quickly. The rest of my adult dendrobiums are just in charcoal.

[solay]

Looks great. It'll take a lot of patience for that little guy to grow up but it's doing good so far. Nice job.

[patticake]

I would have a little more air get at it, but not enough to dry it out. Just let a little more in by a vent in the bag, so you don't get more rot. You want to keep the humidity high, but let a little more air in gradually so the plant adapts to the outside world slowly.