Orchid rescuer

[Relemitty]

Hi everybody, my name is Brian.
I became an orchid rescuer. You see, my friend buys white noid Phals at Trader joes and Whole Foods to decorate her house but then throws them out when they quit blooming. She told me this the summer of 2019 and I'm like "Wait, hold the bus, I'll take them".
Often they are in bad shape so the first thing I do is remove all the sphagnum moss, trim rotted roots and repot with a bark mix in the same pot.
The count for my Phals is 18 but I gave some away.

I have a Cattleya I bought in February 2021 that is a baby but adds 2 new growths a year.

I just bought a Dendrobium and a Odontobrassia (they already had bloomed) that get the same light as my Cattleya.

Too many YouTube Vids got me fussing over my plants so I am joining here to ask questions and get a little balance in my knowledge.

[Roberta]

Welcome! And thank you for rescuing those orchids!

[DeaC]

Hey there Brian! Glad you've joined the family. There's a gal in FL. near Miami whos YouTube channel I'm into and she craves white Phals. for decorating inside the home. When blooms expire she attaches them to her many palms outside and they love it. Know you can't do this in OK. but kudos for the rescues. Welcome.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board! Are you connected to the University?

[orchidman77]

Welcome Brian!

Pretty sure most of us have a few rescues in our collection - that's how I got the bug! Good luck, and enjoy.

David

[Relemitty]

Hey DeaC,
I may have seen that channel as I want to experiment with mounting. I have an interesting chunk of Cedar that I cut and I am thinking of making a nice Sphagnum bed and putting one of my Phals on it.
Yeah, I know that is better in Florida and my Humidity is 25 % right now but if I keep indoors and water ever other day...who knows.

---------- Post added at 05:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:24 PM ----------

Hey estación seca !

No not connected with OU. I actually moved here from Phoenix 12 years ago for a job.
In Phoenix I had no Orchids but I did like how you could grow tropical plants, provided you gave them tons of water.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Relemitty

Hey DeaC,
I may have seen that channel as I want to experiment with mounting. I have an interesting chunk of Cedar that I cut and I am thinking of making a nice Sphagnum bed and putting one of my Phals on it.
Yeah, I know that is better in Florida and my Humidity is 25 % right now but if I keep indoors and water ever other day...who knows.[COLOR="Silver"]

Phals can grow really well mounted - if you can give them good moisture (even every day is fine for watering... you can't overwater a mounted plant). Suggestion though when you mount... put the new roots against the mount, with very little moss. You want to do this just as a new root is emerging, it's only new roots that will attach. (Make sure that the new root is in the direction of the mount) A little pad of sphagnum can cushion that fragile little green root tip. (if it gets damaged it will stop growing) But then put most of the moss ON TOP of the established roots. If you put a lot of moss under the plant, it will tend to root into the moss. But if (except for the bit for cushioning) the new root(s) encounter the bare mount, they'll attach (like they would to a tree in nature) The moss on top just serves to give the extra moisture that it needs in the dry environment.

For mounting, I find 12 lb test monofiliment fishing line works well... it's transparent so you can hardly see it. 10 lb is too thin and breaks too easily, 15 lb is too stiff to work with easily. (Other types of fishing line work well too)

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Welcome Brian. Looking forward to your input.

[Mountaineer370]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

[Relemitty]

I did my first mounting of a Phal last night.

My woods have Cedar and I found an aging Cedar stump and cut it to size and roughed up the front, then soaked it for 24 hours.
I chose a Phal that is growing good but was growing sideways in her pot
She mounted on the wood, no sphagnum between wood and plant (Thank you Roberta!), then I tucked sphagnum into the existing roots.
I used 24 gauge clear speaker wire that was split in 2 wires. I ran the wire through holes and around the stem and roots. The nice thing was that the wire was bendy and I could tighten in the back by twisting the wire around itself.
Hopefully, you are not all screaming at your computer monitors about all the newbie mistakes I made. .
Here is a picture.