Phal. I-Hsin George in full bloom

George is now blooming on all spikes:



I really have to repot it into larger pot becuse now it looks like there are more roots than potting medium in the current pot. I should do it after he is done blooming.

Orchid tank is filled with wonderful fragrance.

Phalaenopsis I-Hsin George in bloom

I like when I-Hsin George bloooms. It has multiple spikes and usually produces several flowers at the time.



It took a short break after my unsuccessful attempt in propagation (pod dried out at the late stage but was kind of empty).

Uh...Oh... Seed pod is dying

I posted before about my pollination attempts. One of them was I-Hsin George that I crossed with Phal. violacea 'Orchis 01'. The pod is only 6 months old and not very fat or long, and it is supposed to take about 8 months to ripen. Clearly it is not good turn of events:



See how the pod started to yellow? An orchid breeder that I showed picture of a pod to said that it is going to dry out and fall. He said there still might be seeds in the capsule close to the flower and suggested to cut off the pod and wrap it in-between paper to keep seeds from dusting out.
I am going to do it today even though I am pretty sure the seeds (if there will be any) will not be viable...

Seed pod watch: two months

It has been two months since I did my first pollination attempt. Seed pod is still there and growing.

I was taking out I-Hsin George for watering and thought it would be good time to snap a picture for update:



I think pod becomes too heavy for the spike and I really need to provide some type of support for the stem.

I-Hsin George blooms on the second spike

Even though my Phal I-Hsin George is carrying a seed pod, it decided to continue with the bud on the second spike, and now the flower opened:



I now have a big urge to put its pollen on bellina that I posted couple days ago. Should I? I know that the cross of I-Hsin George and bellina is registered but could not find pictures of its blooms, so I cannot justify if it is worth to spoil bellina bloom that I enjoy so much.

Seed pod watch: four weeks

Unfortunately there is only one pod left to watch. The violacea 'Orchis 01' hit the garbage bin due to severe mites infestation.
So there is only I-Hsin George carrying a pod now:



It fattened the pod since last update.



After discovering mites on violaceas I treated all my orchids with miticide soap including George, including pod. Not sure if it will affect anything in its development. Hopefully not...

Seed pods watch: two weeks

Well, it has been two weeks since I pollinated my two phals and now it is definitely clear that something is going on.

I-Hsin George flower:



violacea "Orchis 01' flower:



Phal. violacea shriveled new bud that followed this flower on the spike and I-Hsin George dropped the second flower that opened after the pollinated one. I think both are trying to tell me that they are pretty serious about the pods and don't want to spend energy on anything else.
Although George has a bud coming on a different spike:



According to web pods should mature in about 6 months...

Phalaenopsis pollination results

A week ago on Friday I did my first pollination attempt. Then for the whole week I was watching the flowers to see the changes that would suggest any positive results. Now I think I see them. Well at least I hope they are there.
I cross pollinated Phal. violacea 'Orchis 01' and I-Hsin George. Here are the exact flowers that I used:



The bloom on violacea is loosing purple color and becomes green:



I-Hsin George bloom one week after pollination:



I think something is going on. If there are experienced people reading this, could you confirm?

Phal I-Hsin George blooms

Gorgeous George opened his first flower for this summer:



It is one of my all time favorites. I find flowers look nice on he picture in front of my large vanda:



The top part has not unwrapped completely yet, but I couldn't wait.



I am thinking about trying to experiment with pollination since I have another beautiful flower just opened recently - Phal. violacea 'Orchis 01':



I hope pairing these two will not result in "crapaploid", if I do everything right of course. Need to do a research and watch some videos on how to pollinate them, all I know now is - you are supposed to use a toothpick...

Phal. I-Hsin George

Finally I-Hsin George activated one of the newer spikes:



It looks like there will be more than just one flower.

Phal. I-Hsin George

Here is a small update on George. He is obviously enjoying his life in the orchid tank and doesn't grow long narrow leaves any more.
New leaves now come out nice and round:



I-Hsin George grew lots of new roots too. He already had few spikes and now I discovered start of yet one more spike:



All I need now - just a few blooms...

Phal. I-Hsin George

Ever since I got orchid tank I wanted to put my large specimen-sized George in there.
Being mounted on a large piece of grape wood, it would never fit the tank. At the same time I was having a real pain trying to keep its roots from drying out on the mount.
Finally I decided to be brutal and took George off the mount.
It was actually a good thing because part of the roots that was touching the wood rotted pretty badly, luckily it didn't spread to the stem.
I cut all the bottom part of the stem with old roots including two bottom leaves, so the root ball was big enough to snuggly fit the usual clay pot with slits(my orchids like those pots):



The long and narrow leaf that developed during the time George spent in the low-light conditions had to be trimmed too because now in the upright position it was in real danger of breaking together with the whole crown.

Now Phal. I-Hsin George is standing in the corner of the orchid tank.



Hopefully it will be ok...

George is growing a new leaf!

Just like the title states, I was passing by the place where Phalaenopsis I-Hsin George hangs on his mount and noticed a start of a new leaf:



It now gets a lot of light and I am trying to not let the root ball dry out too much. Hopefully mounting this huge phal was not a huge mistake.

Mounting George

Over the summer Phal. I-Hsin George has been growing long new leaves that were sort of soft and floppy. Then I noticed that they were so floppy that started to nod down.
I tried to stake it for support but ended up breaking off the whole long and soft leaf.
Luckily the newer leaf already started, so the crown was still alive, but that newer leaf was growing looking down too.
George became a problem to handle because I was constantly worried that I can break off the whole crown.
Finally I decided that if he wants to look down with his new leaves - then I should probably mount him upside down so the newest leaf will just hang there without any risk to be broken.
For a while I couldn't find a suitable and large enough piece of wood, but yesterday at PetSmart I finally came across something that could be it:



Long story short - here is the result:



It is now hanging on the railing against the window and gets a lot of light. I put some sphagnum on the mount over the roots in hopes that it will keep some humidity there.



Here is the look from below. It shows the newest leaf and traces of the broken one(there is brown cinnamon powder collected on the cut). I am guessing that spikes will probably die off because of the change-of-environment shock:



I am not sure if it was a good idea to mount I-Hsin George, just hope it won't kill him.

Phalaenopsis I-Hsin George events

After blooming George was busy growing enormous quantitiy of roots along the stem (interestingly on one side only). I have no idea what is he going to do with all of them, but I guess they are needed for something:



Roots look like invasion of giant worms or little snakes, I mist them from time to time so they don't die from thirst:



Today however I noticed something else coming above one of the roots and I think it is a new spike:



Does that mean that I-Hsin George doesn't care about old spikes anymore? I don't know, but I do like all this activity. He also grows third new leaf at the same time:



Also he leans a lot on one side, so I probably need to find some way to support the stem, but nothing comes to my mind. Wire might damage the leaves, what else can be used?

Phalaenopsis I-Hsin George flower

Phalaenopsis I-Hsin George

Phal. I-Hsin George came from Crystal Star Orchids.



Large specimen with 4 spikes and several blooms - it has overgrown the plastic pot and needed repotting.
Here is what the inside of the pot looked like:



It took some while before all the old moss was cleaned out and some rotted roots were trimmed. Then plant had a nice warm bath in the kitchen sink:



I debated with myself on the choice of the pot and medium for some time, but then, since it seems that plant liked to be in the plastic pot with moss, I decided to keep it that way too. I stuck couple packing peanuts under the base in the middle for just in case. All repotted: