Phals blooming in clay pellets and wood baskets

[Aerial]

Originally Posted by mtorchid

Okay, there's your most problematic variable. You must have drainage and a way to thoroughly flush the fertilizer salts, etc. from medium, otherwise they will absorb the salts and eventually the roots end up being suspended in a toxic environment. Even orchids in S/H environments have to be drained/flushed out regularly.

If you can't drill the drain holes through the glass vase, you will have to repot it into a container that has drainage.

Someday, your big orchid will thank you for it with plenty of blooms!

I do flush it out. Every week before I water it, I fill it with distilled water twice and dump it out. It's small enough that I can hold the clay in while flipping the whole thing upside down, and then I use fertilizer water. It's the mini that is in the vase and is doing very well.