Hi all, I am about to recieve a flask of Phal gigantea
Question, if you have deflasked Phal gigantea what medium did you use to place them in/on.
I am at the moment thinking about placeing them in 3 inch clear pots with some jumbo size CoCo nuggets, perhaps 4 to 5 pieces per pot with 1 plant.
The pieces are realy big, perhaps 1 to 1 3/4 in in size.
am thinking this is a bit like mounting on mini mounts, am hopeing roots will attache to the large pieces and when it comes time to mount on larger mounts, mount the lot with the roots attached.
any other suggestions.
Have been warned they do not wet feet so this is the best I can come up with at the moment
Cheerio
Ron

I prefer to use sphagnum moss on phalaenopsis seedlings after deflasking. In my experience, it's important to keep small seedlings in a high humidity enclosure. As to the potting mix of your choice, you would water it often enough that the mix is not wet but moist. I use moss - so I start off with fresh moss that is slightly moist, not wet. Before the moss becomes completely dry, I would mist the top layer of the moss to keep it moist. I would NOT drench moss with water so the moss is wet for days.

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Peter Lin, Admin
Big Leaf Orchids

I do it always like Peter explained. I wash them, put them in living moss (always at least 5-8 together in one compot) and keep them carefully moist. I provide the babies with appropriate ventilation, not too much light. That's it.

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Bye-Bye, Sylvi & Olaf

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Hi Photos did not come through the first time, have a new photo editing program so remembered to update
The photos were taken about 10 minutes after the were deflasked
15 Plants in the flask andd this was part of some of them.
Now Feb. 2012 all are growing well and making new leaf growth.
very happy but aloooog wait I suspect to see them flower

Not true at all. Phal gigantea is very easy to grow especially from flask. The trick is not to have mishap. If you underwater, overwater, too hot, too cold, leaves on water over night, etc...all of these will weaken or slow down the growth. Small seedlings do not handle stress well compared to an older plant which has more resources.

When this happens, the seedlings are pretty much out of luck. Once slow down its growth, the plant can be stunned and sit there for a while before readjusting. This is true with Phal violacea, amboinensis, species in general. These just don't grow roots quickly - when we compared to improved Phal aphrodite subsp formosana - an extreme comparison.

Phal gigantea collected from jungle many time lost too much roots and in a short time do not recover (cannot grow roots fast enough to support the larger leaves). This is why it's always better to grow cultivated species.

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Peter Lin, Admin
Big Leaf Orchids

Hi Peter, thanks for the info, we are now heading into winter 2012, now July being the coldest month.
the gigantea seedlings are still going very well, I may have lost a couple of the runts, but most have produced a couple of new leaves and their roots growing quiet well.
With the combination of being on a hotbed at 22C and warmish rainwater during our winter seems to keep them in a happy mood.
I hope to re-pot most of them into 3 inch clear pots in early summer (November) if the growth continues to go as well as now is.Hopefully another year or to in these pots and then the mounts! fingers all crossed
Will update with photos when I re-pot them.
Many thanks for the assistance