Dry reservoir plus update

[Transcendental topiary]

How often does the reservoir for a phal need to be topped off? Wondering if it's evaporating too fast, tho idk how I'd correct that since it's too big to go anywhere i can contain it and up the humidity.

I repotted the phal into s/h on December 30th. On January 3rd, and again today the 7th the reservoir was completely empty tho the hydroballs are still moist to the top, no dry line.

I did a complete flush thru with water since i couldn't get every bit of sphagnum off the roots, and refilled the reservoir before returning it to it's home spot.

It's looking a bit floppy (bottom 2 leaves) but overall not bad and still has it's flowers.

[fishmom]

Best practice is to do a flush-and-fill each time you water. I cover the holes at the top of the reservoir with my hand, fill the pot to the top, let the water run out, tip the pot slightly to get it as empty as possible, and then fill the reservoir with water, fertilizer solution, etc.

[Transcendental topiary]

Originally Posted by fishmom

Best practice is to do a flush-and-fill each time you water. I cover the holes at the top of the reservoir with my hand, fill the pot to the top, let the water run out, tip the pot slightly to get it as empty as possible, and then fill the reservoir with water, fertilizer solution, etc.

That's pretty much what i did. Just wasn't sure if watering 2x/week is a lot, if it should dry out a bit before watering again. All the roots are green and only one above the hydroballs got that silvery look from drying out.

It also came out if super packed sphag and was very wet with quite a bit of rot so not sure if letting it dry out at all would shock the roots or be good for them.

I also thought of filling the entire Tupperware container its in and letting it sit for 20 min or so then flushing it out and refilling the reservoir like once a week would help firm up the kinda floppy bottom leaves

[Ray]

Once the plant is established, you cannot water too much, and in fact, doing so more frequently is better than less so.

I try to never allow reservoirs to go dry.

Repeated flushings are preferable to soaks. It achieves the same degree of hydration, while flushing residues out of the pot, rather than letting the plant sit in its own wastes.

[Transcendental topiary]

Thanks! Will continue what I'm doing then