Picked up 10 more Phals today for $4.96/ea

Discussion in 'Member's Gallery' started by chris1948, Jan 31, 2017.

  1. chris1948

    chris1948 Seedling

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    Our Walmart put a lot of their Phals on 1/2 price yesterday. I was lucky enough to stop by today and grabbed 10 of them. I've now got 42, including 6 minis out in my greenhouse.
     

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  3. eileen

    eileen Resident Taxonomist Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

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    Gosh that's a heck of a lot Chris.:eek: I only have one and am having problems even keeping it alive!!:smt053
     
  4. chris1948

    chris1948 Seedling

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    I hear that a lot on another site I'm on Eileen. They're always wanting me to try other varieties that they say are easier to grow since according to them Phals are the hardest.
     
  5. Ronni

    Ronni Hardy Maple

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    Good Lord!! That's one heck of a lot of orchids! :eek:

    What do you DO with them all???
     



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  6. chris1948

    chris1948 Seedling

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    Well since I'm retired and have nothing much else to do they keep me busy for one. Watering/fertilizing once a week and misting twice a day keeps me busy then there's the surgical procedures of removing the dead leaves when necessary. Ultimately it's the satisfaction of taking a living thing that eventually Walmart would have trashed because they couldn't sell it and bringing it back to life. It's a win-win situation for us both.
     
  7. Islandlife

    Islandlife Young Pine

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    I have 2 orchids. Both were only small when I bought them and I'm not buying another until I see IF they'll flower again. I've had the first one for about a year and it is just sitting. Grew 1 leaf and that is all. The second one I've only had a couple months and it just finished flowering so am not expecting much from it. Am hoping either one of them will produce again but will have to wait and see :) :)

    Admire your dedication Chris1948 hopefully you'll be rewarded with tons of lovely blooms :)
     
  8. chris1948

    chris1948 Seedling

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    If they're Phalaenopsis they usually start putting out flower spikes when the temp starts dipping. Mine started in late Oct and have some pretty large spikes with quite a few buds on them. What and how do you feed yours? I use MSU Fertilizer once weekly. I mix about 1/2tsp with 1gal of Reverse Osmosis water. I also mist mine daily with a mixture of this - https://www.healthrangerstore.com/c...d/products/potassium-nitrate-13-7-0-46-3-1-lb 1/2tsp and 1/2tsp of Epson Salts to 1gal of RO water. Phals are slow to put out new leaves I get about 1 leaf a year if I'm lucky. Unless the flower spike turns brown and dies don't cut it off. Keep it attached to the stake. There's a chance that it may put out more spikes coming from it. I'll show you a few photos tomorrow if you want to see them.
     
  9. Islandlife

    Islandlife Young Pine

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    @chris1948 - so far I have fed either of them much of anything other than a 20-20-20 when I feed my other plants which I've started doing once the days start to get a tad longer. Since I only have 2 I haven't misted but I do have both of them in the kitchen essentially on the end of the counter where they're getting the full benefit of a complete window wall and all the steam I generate cooking a few feet away.

    It is also too late for me NOT to cut off the stems after flowering - they're already gone. I was under the impression that once flowering was done I'd cut the flower stalk off just above the lowest node.

    I'd love to see your phals though :) :) :)
     
  10. chris1948

    chris1948 Seedling

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    Here's some photos, though they may not all look really well, some yellow leaves and such they all have fine root systems even the smallest one that may look like it's on it's last legs has nice green roots coming out of it. The ones with flowers are those that I just got earlier this week. Some of the larger/longer spikes were those that I left on after the blooms finished and the spike stayed green. There is one that I had to cut the dead portion off which I did but you can see that it's putting out more buds. The image of the white tub is my homemade humidity tray. It's just a small plastic tub I bought at Walmart with some plastic louver material from Lowes cut to cover it and filled about 1/2 way with water.
    dsc06901.jpg dsc06902.jpg dsc06903.jpg dsc06904.jpg dsc06905.jpg dsc06906.jpg dsc06907.jpg dsc06908.jpg dsc06909.jpg dsc06910.jpg dsc06911.jpg dsc06912.jpg
     
  11. Islandlife

    Islandlife Young Pine

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    Looks super interesting and I quite like your modification of the little hair clips to hold the stems in place! :)
     
  12. chris1948

    chris1948 Seedling

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    Oh, those aren't hair clips, they're called Orchid Stem Clips, made for clipping the spike to the stake.
     
  13. Islandlife

    Islandlife Young Pine

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    Ohhhhhhhhhh (what do I know! ;) ;) ) You've definitely got a really good set up. Am hoping you've got a few really rarer varieties of orchids in your batch! Once they all start flowering you are definitely going to have a super lovely bloomin' (green)house :) :)
     
  14. Ronni

    Ronni Hardy Maple

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    The hair clip things? I buy the exact same clips from the Dollar Tree ;) They're so handy for plants other than orchids too. I loved seeing the little keiki in the pic just before the white tub. I just love when they have babies!!! ;)
     
  15. chris1948

    chris1948 Seedling

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    Hmm, I've never looked for them there Ronni. There are actually four keikis the one, I've circled it, is just starting and is kind of hidden by the big root of one of them. dsc06905.jpg
     
  16. Ronni

    Ronni Hardy Maple

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    Wow you're right! How cool.

    Do you have success with them..like when you separate them from the mother plant and grow them as a new plant? I've only done it twice. The first time the baby did fine, and is still growing. The second time it was a disaster. I did it exactly the same both times so I don't know what was different the second time. :(
     
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