Phal roots

Here's what it looks like:

yep. take plant out of cache pot; put in sink; pour water generously over aerial roots.

drain thoroughly, then put back in cache pot. i'd do all this first thing in the morning so the crotch of the leaves has time to dry before dark.

i have one that grew all its leaves in one direction, and a pile of roots flowed over the pot rim in the other direction.

it was actually kind of cool. :)

(are you jane from the 'geeks??)

--j_a

The photo illustrates a question I've had. A lot of my phal's, while seemingly happy, tend to tip and grow sideways. Being a fussbudget I always have a tendency to want to turn them vertical. Which is better?

What constitutes "better"?

In nature, you'll mostly see pals growing "flopped" over to the side. I speculate that gravity takes advantage of the relatively small base compared to the large plant mass above it, and "over she goes". It also helps prevent water from standing in the crown, which helps eliminate a great place for bacteria and fungi to grow, virtually eliminating crown rot.

Peter Lin, a grower of excellent phal specimens (bigleaforchids.com), intentionally tips his pots to achieve that.