Julia wrote: > >Hi everyone, > >I have owned a Phal lindeni for several years and it has never had more >than 2 or 3 leaves on it, although it blooms every year. I grow it >mounted on tree fern with a sphagnum pad, and as it has been on that >tree fern since I bought it the roots are fairly well integrated in the >fibers. I keep it in about intermediate temps in my basement under >fluorescent light. It annoys me that this plant always looks like it >wants to jettison its leaves. Can anyone offer some advice on getting >better results with this plant? Do you grow yours in pot/basket, cork, >or TF? I sort of think my problem might be the tree fern as I've had >problems with other species on tree fern in the past, but I know plenty >of people use it with success. > >Thanks, > >Julia
Hello Julia, A long time ago I had a lindenii that had been grown in a large pot of fir bark. It was pretty happy until I let someone else care for it while they watched some seed pods on it ripen; it sat in some water during the Winter and it rotted. I think I had one other I tried to grow in a pot, and at some point during a Winter it got too wet and also rotted. Now, I grow only on pieces of cork bark, with loose sphagnum around the roots. They are hanging from shelves in my kitchen window where they never get bright light unless during Winter the angle of the sun gets low enough to shine in late in the day. During the Summer a fan moves air out a bedroom window and vacuum pulls it in the kitchen window. In Winter my kitchen is only 65F at warmest, and much cooler by that window. I try to water every other day, but sometimes it is 3-4 days between full waterings with a spray attachment from my kitchen sink. Humidity is never very high, but the plants usually look pretty good. This year all my adult plants coordinated their flowering and are now all in flower, this after a few years of very scattered flowering all year 'round. Problem will be that one of them always flowered around the time of our Fall Show, but this year will be long out of flower. I have no idea how I pulled this off (hah, I had nothing to do with it I'm sure), and am wondering if some of them will in turn flower in less than a year and be out of phase with the rest. In the past, I've had problems with things on tree fern except for a trichopilia maculata that was pretty hardy to start with. Of my phals, many of the small ones have died while being grown (poorly) on tree fern. Fertilizer I think often collects too much and they burn, so remaining phals on tree fern get alot of plain water and weak fertilizer. I've been told that these mouns can get acidic over time and using calcium nitrate or a basic fertilizer is necessary to keep the substrate pH from getting too low, though have no idea if this works or not. Maybe the plants are too close to the light; if they are getting strong light maybe they feel they don't need more leaves? Mine are pretty dark but get new leaves right along and though dark don't have a problem flowering. They do flower more when I remember to fertilize more when I see flower spikes starting. hope this helps, charles ps Someone in tennessee told me that the way they get lindenii to grow in their greenhouse is to put the plant into a pot that is just big enough to hold the roots folded into it, and no potting mix. they just water when the roots look dryish -- charles ufford oriskany, ny usa _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
