This plant was bought as a seedling from Song Orchid. I was skeptical of this plant being a true alba form of phal javanica as this form is rare and i have seen photos of this form posted on forums only twice. The only way to confirm its identity is to wait for flowering.
This seedling had been acclimatized and had began to establish itself at Song Orchids when I made the purchase. Then, it was mounted on fern bark with a ball of sphagnum moss at its roots and had quite a number of healthy roots with long green growth tips that were either growing into or crawling over the sphagnum moss ball. The sphagnum moss ball was allowed to dry out completely between waterings. It was grown in the shade of other phals and received half-shaded sun.
When the plant was brought home, it was remounted onto the standard basket culture that other phals receive. The change in medium, environment and culture probably disturbed the seedling too much, thereby over-stressing it.
Existing roots before the remount were lost one after another over a period of time after remountimg. Visible portions of the roots could be seen turning black and hollow. This could be due to change in medium whereby roots formed in one type of medium cannot function properly in another type of medium as they were already developed to survive and function in the original medium.
Quite a number of new roots can be observed to be growing but most did not reach the medium eventually. To date, only about 4 new roots were seen to have reached the medium successfully. Those that did not reach the medium were caught between leaf sheaths and the main stem and stopped growing when they failed to push through/pass the sheaths. Of the 4 that reached the medium, 1 penetrated into the medium upon touching the medium, 1 crawled along the surface before penetrating the medium when a way in was found, 1 had its growing tip turning black when it came into contact with the medium (the whole root turned black and hollow after some time) and the latest root is thick and fleshy. The growing tip could could have died due to excess fertilizer salts in the medium, and the reason why the whole root was lost is unknown.
Thus, the roots of this species may be concluded to be extremely sensitive. Even a slightly concentrated fertilizer solution or a slight salt accumulation at the root tip may hurt it ( root tip may stop growing, turn black or even die off).
Song had 3 phal javanica f. alba plants of about the same size at the time of purchase. However, one of the remaining plants had grown much larger and healthier than mine in one year's time. This could be due to the drastic drop in growth rate and performance when the plant experienced a change in medium, environment and culture.
I will try my best to keep the medium very moist to see how the plant and roots respond.
