Phal speciosa - cannot keep one alive. Tips?

Mine seems to grow well under similar condition as other (intermediate-warm) Phalaenopsis. Mine is growing in fairly weak artificial light (<1000 fc), Max/min of 29/18C (75/65F) in the winter 24/18C (85/65F) in the summer, RH >70%. It's in med. bark. I would guess that growing in live sphagnum could be difficult (dead sphagnum would work).

 

I also keep carnivorous plants, and live sphagnum works well for some of them. But to keep them alive, you have to keep them fairly wet condition (they are bog plants). It does work well with Disa uniflora (in translucent pot). But I think that it is difficult to keep epiphytic orchids and live sphagnum alive in the same pot for a long term. In a larger pot, the middle part of sphag seem to die. I have used several time successfully to revive rootless Paphs and Phals with live sphag on the top 1 inch of the pot. But I usually need to move them to the normal media after a year or so. But it sounds like that you are having successful with the completely wet roots. Maybe it is similar to the principle of Ray's semi-hydro.

With Phals, dead sphagnum moss does work well (frequently used by asian growers). But the timing of watering becomes trickier (for me) since the variation in drying time among pots (and among season) seems to be high in my condition. I have to watch the drying rate carefully for individual pots, so it is too time-consuming. I sometime use dead sphag for seedlings or weak plants which I intensively watch, though. But once they become bigger, I usually move to bark based media. But it is just something which works better for me, and I think that you can use whatever media which you are most accustomed to.

I have had my P. tetraspis 'C1' (P. speciosa is a synonym) in the bark mix since 2012 spring (about 4 years ago). I got it from Ten-Shin as a bare-root plant (it is supposed to be the mericlone of the original 'C1'), so I don't know what it was growing in (probably dead sphag like most growers in Taiwan). I've been neglecting it since it's been growing well, but I probably should repot it soon... This photo is from about 2.5 years ago:

Phalaenopsis tetraspis 'C1' on Flickr

Here is a paper about the synonymization (the change in the morphology is pretty interesting):
http://richardiana.com/pdfRich/Richardiana-vol14-28-Phalaenopsis speciosa.pdf

 

One ipa meeting I was at we talked about tetraspis and it loving shade, being one of the shadier grown Phals. The other being its warmth. I've employed both those to the best of my ability in the greenhouse on a mount and enjoyed good success.

 

Being mounted, it does dry out. For several days at a time. That's just mine though. I maintain that growing it potted is equally suitable.

 

With regard to the light level, table 3 might be a good starting point:

http://ranwild.org/Phalaenopsis/module/introduction/intro6/Ecultivationhead.html

But it may be different under different environment. P. cochlearis seems to be happy with fairly dim condition. I grow P. micholitzii at a moderate light. I also can grow P. amabilis at very low light, etc.

 

Hi Delilah.
For some 20 years, I have cultivated some plants of Phalaenopsis in Indonesia - where
they originate from. Nurserymen in Indonesia will not grow Phalaenopsis plants in moss ...
they will use relatively large pieces of clean fir bark.
Here is my tip : you might fix the plant to the edge of the pot, so that the plant hangs
over but does not wobble, then fill-up the space of the pot with a few pieces of large
fir bark ('large' relative to the size of the plant) - and please provide LIGHT to your plant.
You might hang the pot slightly tilted. Chances are, that your plant will be sending some
of it's roots over the outside surface of the pot ...
Water and fertilizer-in-water should of course be sprayed not onto the leaves, but onto
the fir bark - at a time when the temperature is 20°C or more.
Regarding LIGHT : I have seen plants of Phalaenopsis amabilis mounted to coconot trees
and receiving full sun light - however, extremes (too little or too much) are never a good
choice ...
I wish you to have success.
-----------------------------
PS : hybrid plants are 'rough-necks' ... species plants usually are not.