All good advice, Maria. If one could water enough, Phal. could do perfectly well with no media at all. I use the basic media for my (few) Phal. that I do for my Cattleya Alliance orchids (1/3 medium Douglas fir bark, 1/3 medium horticultural charcoal, 1/3 medium coconut chunks), but might mix in 1/4 (by vol.) long-fibered sphagnum moss or coarse perlite. I often don't bother though. Other than that, they get the same growing conditions as all my other orchids, which by the way, breaks every rule there is in growing Phalaenopsis orchids.
Many of my Phal. are mounted, others are in mesh baskets or mesh pots, and most of these are hanging under my oak trees from April through October. Only my "baby" plants are in the orchid greenhouse or in my house. How do I water those outside? With a hose!. I couldn't care less if the crown of the plants gets watered, and they always do. My plants grow and bloom and appear to be happy and healthy. Those in the greenhouse also are watered with a hose and get misted, again getting the entire plant wet. I think my great air movement perhaps saves the day. The plants dry before nightfall, but when we get later afternoon showers or thunder storms, well, the Phal. and all the other orchids outside stay wet through the night. I guess my premise is that where the orchids grow in the wild, the crown of the plants get wet every time it rains, and in the tropics and sub-tropics, it rains a lot.
