Forgotten experiment...

[Luvlyhnezh]

About 2 months ago, when I did not know what I bought was Leca It was in a quart size bag "ceramic rock" for orchid or houseplant. I was just thinking of using it like a perlite except, it's larger size.

I had a mini-phal that was just done blooming so, time to repot. I mixed leca w/ moss. Watering it twice a week, & weekly weakly fertilizer. Forgot this experiment, but not the orchid

Well, 2 months passed & doing great. It now have a new leaf emerging
Should have done this w/ my other phal that need saving. I killed 5, including
the one I tried saving by s/h. One is still thriving in s/h though. I'm leaving this alone.

So today, I repotted 4 phal that's done blooming in leca & moss mix. Wish me luck

[orchids4me]

Keep us posted : )
Thanks for sharing your experience

[plucker]

I have recently tried this as a medium too, although it is still too early to tell. For me, I wanted more air circulation to the roots of the phals so I can feed them more often. I am trying to feed 1/2 strength every watering and currently do that twice a week with a good flush at the 4th week.
Other growers around here feed twice a week with 1/2 strength fertilizer and have astonishing growth rates.

[Luvlyhnezh]

Update:
1 phal got crown rot.... So that's a goner.
The other 3 phals looks promising.
The one in s/h is still thriving.

[Stelios]

not trying to be smart or anything, but you should know there is an ongoing war between us geeks. A part of us say sphagnum is the best thing and the other part (me included) believe sphagnum is a phal killer. I would humbly advise switching to fir bark chips with just a bit of coal dust. I think California is in the same climate zone as mine although when i once visited L.A. i found it dryer. So you might need a humidity tray under the pot or just a few strings of sphagnum or horticulture sponge in your mix. If you still want to use sphagnum make sure it is not compressed.

[Luvlyhnezh]

Hello stelios, what is a horticulture sponge? Also, what is a coal dust? Sorry for my ignorance but I really have no idea what those are.

[BluPeaches]

Originally Posted by Stelios

not trying to be smart or anything, but you should know there is an ongoing war between us geeks. A part of us say sphagnum is the best thing and the other part (me included) believe sphagnum is a phal killer. I would humbly advise switching to fir bark chips with just a bit of coal dust. I think California is in the same climate zone as mine although when i once visited L.A. i found it dryer. So you might need a humidity tray under the pot or just a few strings of sphagnum or horticulture sponge in your mix. If you still want to use sphagnum make sure it is not compressed.

I used to be afraid of Sphagnum but once I gave it a try and learned from my mistakes I love it. I thought I was a phal serial killer, I lost count of how many I killed. Not only with moss but in bark as well. The 4 I have right now are doing awesome and they are all in sphagnum moss. I put them in a little bowl with water and let it soak until you can see that the moss is all moist. Then I remove it and water againg about a week later.

[BluPeaches]

[QUOTE=Luvlyhnezh;234932]Hello stelios, what is a horticulture sponge? Also, what is a coal dust? Sorry for my ignorance but I really have no idea what those are.[/QUOTE

Double I'm sorry.

[BluPeaches]

Originally Posted by Luvlyhnezh

Hello stelios, what is a horticulture sponge? Also, what is a coal dust? Sorry for my ignorance but I really have no idea what those are.

Maybe Stelios means perlite?

[Luvlyhnezh]

Thanks BluPeaches... and I thought I was the only Phal killer here. For some reason, it's only Phal that I keep on killing except for one oncidium (Don't know what happened there. I transplanted it, & it died on me.) If I have 20 Phals, that means half is dead already & half is surviving somehow, hehehe But I still like to buy them, because I can't help myself everytime I see such beauty plus lovely color... Oh well, I'm hopeless when it comes to orchids

[Luvlyhnezh]

Here's a pix of the forgotten experiment's new leaf:

[Luvlyhnezh]

Update:

Forgotten experiment died I was gone for several days, when I got back home, both leaves were on the floor I have no idea what happened there

As for the 3 phals, they're all still surviving. I, however, removed some moss & added more leca on one of the phal. I believed, I put too much moss on that one. I'm hoping for the best

The one in s/h now has one root

[PhalNewbie89]

I personally enjoy moss as well. Because of all the things I had read on here it really scared me for a while but when I finally started using it I really enjoyed it. All my phals seem to be enjoying it as well.

Looks like I might even be getting a spike from one of them.