Repotting Phalaenopsis gigantea

Bare root Phalaenopsis gigantea

 

     Phalaenopsis gigantea got moved up to a larger pot on 03/12/13.  The reasons for the repot were two-fold.  One: I'm finding myself less and less willing to water orchids every day.  The 2.5" clay pot that housed my gigantea seedling dried out very quickly, and I wanted to have more time between waterings.  Second: the orchid has grown a great number of roots since September, but they were all growing up and out of the pot.  But putting the orchid is a wider larger pot, I was able to give all these new roots a chance to grow into the media.

Phalaenopsis gigantea seedling

Phalaenopsis gigantea growing roots

Phalaenopsis gigantea seedling

     When I last updated about my Phal gigantea in September, it had just finished growing a new leaf.  In the 3+ months since, not much new has happened above the surface.  Instead, the phal has put out a number of new roots.  Two are aerial roots growing out side the put, but it also looks like there are a number of new roots under the media as well.

     Hopefully these new roots will have helped the orchid survive these last 2.5 weeks without any watering.  I return home tomorrow, so my next update will show how my orchids fared.  I hope everything is ok.

Phalaenopsis gigantea seedling finishes growing leaf

Phalaenopsis gigantea seedling

     My phal gigantea seems to have adjusted nicely in the month that I've had it under my care.  It has completed growing a new leaf (I can tell it's done growing because of the little ridges that showed up at the leaf's base in the crown).  The newest leaf is 2" long, which is about the same length as the two older leaves.  The orchid also grew two new roots.  One of them is partially visible in the photo (just under the lowest leaf), while the other new root is buried in the media.

     All in all, this orchid seems to be doing quite well.

New Orchid: Phalaenopsis gigantea

A tiny giant: phalaenopsis gigantea seedling

     I've been interested in this phal species for a while now.  The infamously slow-growing phal can get huge: with 24" leaves.  However, the veritable giant of an orchid also comes with an equally giant price tag.  Mature specimens sell for hundreds of dollars.  I am not ready to shell out that much money for any orchid, much less a potentially temperamental species.

     So instead, I ordered a seedling phal gigantea which cost under $10.  This orchid will take longer to reach flowering size, than I will take to finish my PhD. But I am happy to sit back and patiently watch this orchid (hopefully) increase 12-fold in size.  

Phal. gigantea seedling roots

     The seedling is barely larger than my phal noid keikis.  At just over 2" long, its leaves are shorter, but the root system is more developed.  There are two long healthy roots (with some healed breaks), one areal root, and the start of a third root budding from the base.  I trimmed off two rotten roots while repotting.

     I unpotted the phal from its original container and moved it to a slightly larger 2.5" clay pot, with phal bark mix.

Phal. gigantea seedling

     The phal arrived with quite a bit of hard water staining (see top picture) which I tried to wash off as best I could using milk.  There are two leaves at 2" length, and the start of a new leaf.

    I'm curious who will compete for the title of 'my slowest growing orchid': the phal gigantea or my paph sanderianum!