If it ain't broke... Yeah, get more holes in the Phal pot. Fortunately, Phals can be repotted while spiking, budding, and blooming. As for the potting medium, you didn't mention if any of your other orchids are Phals. Regardless, if the bark mix is working for the others, you might try it w/ the Phal. Then just figure out how light requirements for your other orchids compare with the new Phal, if you haven't already. Congratulations on your success. WhiteCat8

Olya, your plants are da bomb! Jusr gorgeous! Gary, as always you are among the wisest of the wise! My questions are these: #1...WHY are you repotting? Are some of your plants OUTGROWING the present containers, or is the media breaking down? If the media is just breaking down, and the pot is still okay, and you have no bugs, you can use the same one again for the same plant #2...for your vandas...are they presently in actual pots or in wood baskets? If the wood basket is just falling apart, all you need to do is get another slightly larger and put the whole shmeel into the new basket. If you like the look of the basket but want to ditch the wood, which deteriorates eventually, you can use the newer plastic slat baskets. The last thing I personally would do is put a vanda in a pot with media where I couldn't keep my eyes on the root system. That just my own preference though. #3...there are other open medias you can use that are cheep and won't break the bank. We save all the corks from the wine we drink and I use that mixed with aliflor sometimes to pot orchids. I have a friend who pots stuff in nutshells. I also save strawberry baskets and put plants in them...cute little green thingies! I never use bark, haven't for years. I mount everything I can, if it won't mount well, I pot it in as loose a media as possible

That's good to know about the pots, I won't worry about it or the weight anymore. What do you use as your gritty ingredients/what is easier to find in our area? I am not sure where to look to find these, I also know that people swap out stuff for lava rock, pumice etc. but don't know what can swap for what. Equal parts by volume: Pine or fir bark in 1/8 - 3/8" size (no fines) Screened Turface MVP Crushed granite (Gran-I-Grit, in grower size) or #2 cherrystone 2-3 teaspoons/gallon gypsum Al Do you have experience with peaches? I've read that one of the biggest threats to peaches in the PNW is Peach Leaf Curl and that gets spread more easily in damp/wet conditions, which is all we have for 7+ months. I spray with copper 2-3 times, during leaf drop at 50% or 75% and 100% and once again in the spring if I can catch it before it starts budding out. Thankfully I didn't have any issue with it but I am certainly very cautious of it. I figure its not difficult to put it under the porch and if that helps keep it dry and the spores from infecting the tree as easily why not? its in a pot which gives me more options than in ground grower but if you (or anyone else) grows them with out all the hassle than I might reconsider my strict approach. Thank you for your help and input, it really makes it easier on me and others that are learning this for the first time. I helps save time/money/plant not having to make all the mistakes before we get it right.

I've added cedar shavings (the kind found in the pet supplies for about $2-3) to many of my plants when I repotted them and never encountered any problems. I never added much, just a generous handful or two, depending on the size of whichever pot I'm using. I'm not saying that it's the best choice, just that I've never had any problems from using it. Back when I still used perlite in my mixes, I only added it to the lower half, to two-thirds of the soil, where it stayed buried and out of sight. I never added it to the top third of the soil because it always floated to the surface whenever I'd go to water my plants. But now I refrain from using perlite at all; the only exception being my orchids. There's nothing wrong with using it. I just got tired of it being in my soil mixes. I would recommend using Miracle Gro Orchid Mix (coarse blend), it's pretty cheap and works great. Ironically, I don't use this for any of my orchids. For them, they get much better quality materials. But for my other plants, it works wonderfully.