Need Help With My New Phal Orchid

[karisalisha]

I've just bought a Phal (Phal. Ho's Little Caroline - mericlone) last Thursday from a grocery store. It's blooming quiet nicely and I see a few that's about to bloom. Try to manage not killing this one (killed one few years ago due to total lack of orchid knowledge), I read some books on them but still quiet confused.

1. Feeding. I bought a Schultz 19-31-17 yesterday and its instruction says 1/4 tsp per gallon of water. Now I have the mixture ready, but do I use the entire gallon of water or just 1/8 or 1/4 of a gallon because my orchid is only about 4" in diameter and 24" tall. After 1/4 of the gallon, its already quiet soaked up. I don't want to drown it, so do I save the rest and use it next week when I water/feed it? I plan to water and feed at the same time once a week from the gallon mixture. Should I use one gallon every time (though that will take a long time due to the size of the orchid) or just enough to soak it? If not the entire gallon, then the orchid is not getting 1/4tsp of fertilizer??

2. My orchid had a plastic container along with a ceramic container outside when I bought it. I see a root coming out of the plastic container this morning while I was watering it. Should I take the orchid out of the plastic container and just put it in the ceramic container, then cover it with sphagnum moss around it? It's only been a week since I bought it, not sure if I should do anything like repotting right now since it's in the middle of blooming.

Thank you for any advice regarding the above or anything else I should know about my particular orchid. Determined this time to really take a good care of it.