Phalaenopsis celebensis advice
 

So I just got a Phalaenopsis celebensis. It looked so cute in the pictures. It arrived, and it is so very small and had one healthy root when I unpotted it from a growers pot full of packed spagnum. Ack! I repotted it in a mix of bark, large perlite, and spagnum, soaked in kelpmax, and have placed it in a choice spot of my grow shelves near the humidifier, shaded by taller plants. It should be mid to high 80s during the day and high 70s at night, 65-70rh. I repotted this morning and the lowest leaf is already losing its chlorophyll and looking ready to drop. Anything else I can do for this little plant?

it looks pretty good to me and on my must have list now too :)

I think you might find that the bark mix may work you over some trying to keep it moist enough for a phal that was grown in wet moooshy moss. Give it some time to adjust.

Practice with some phals in sphagnum. I promise you will find it much easier to tend to the plants in the long run..

In my conditions, not too far off from yours, when I move phals from sphagnum to bark I water them everyday/every other day for a long time. That tends to replicate the always moist conditions of the sphagnum they’re used to but because it’s bark (good quality Kiwi bark) it stays very airy. I’ve never had a plant quite that small with only one root, but so far the existing root system doesn’t collapse from the transition.

Agree with Dimples whenever I transition phala from moss to just bark I try to water it once in 2 days as the roots are used to moisture. Another thing that worked well for me is to have a mix of sphagnum moss and bark basically have moss surround the roots and insert bark in between the roots. I also try to put moss closer to the top of the pot so I can remove the moss once roots have adjusted. I'm still not so comfortable growing orchids in sphagnum moss so I try to use moss sparingly.

Perhaps rash of me, but I mounted it on cork.

I hung it in a plexi box for a little extra humidity. So far so good… no activity in the roots that I can see, but it is growing a new leaf, so it can’t be that unhappy with its new situation.

When I was looking at pictures of these in other people’s collections, the majority of happy ones seemed to be mounted.

mounted Phal
 

I found this species likes to be mounted, I had two potted and one died because of being too wet. I mounted the other one and it has being doing ok, it had flowers for two season now.

I think my Celebensis is relatively happy… it lost its largest leaf, but it is growing its second new one since I’ve had it (the first is tiny, sort of a protest leaf) and it has a new growing tip on one of its visible roots. I gave it a bit of shade (hung a scarf over it) which seemed to make it happier… right after I did this it started visibly elongating it’s leaf and started the new root nubbin.