Hello everyone! I'm new here.
Unfortunately, my visit is motivated by rather unpleasant reasons. I've decided to try and save my neighbor's three Phalaenopsis orchids. The thing is: I don't know the first thing about orchids! Well, not until last week. I've done some research on orchids because I am really trying to help my neighbor, but there are a few things research can't provide, only experience. That's why I'm here.
So here's the situation:
I've successfully identified the culprit that caused the three Phals to suffer so much. It was a bad case of
overwatering that resulted in root rot in varying degrees. Leaves weren't getting hydrated enough and started to shrivel up. Two of the three orchids had roots in pretty good condition still, but a little longer in that clay pot without drainage, and they would've probably died. I
cut off the dead roots with sterile clippers and let them dry for a bit. Repotted them in new containers with ventilation holes and used good
bark medium with clay bits in it.
That was six days ago. One of them is doing amazing, the leaves are almost back to normal and the new leaf that had started to grow nearly doubled in size! The other one is doing good as well, but the leaves aren't as springy and firm as the other one's, but she is doing good I'd say.
Now here's the problem child: This orchid had
no viable roots in the medium anymore. I had to remove all of them, because they were mushy and rotted. It hurt my heart. Unfortunately, this orchid had only a
few poorly looking aerial roots. Seven to be exact. One of them accidently broke off, when I took it out of the pot (I made sure they were flexible by spraying them with water, but apparently it wasn't enough). Another one that was previously submerged in the media looked sort of ok, but had probably already started to rot and didn't stop while being exposed to air, so I had to remove it, too. Now this orchid has
five aerial roots left, one of them which is really dry.
I additionally sprayed the roots and the stem down with some
hydrogen peroxide 3% to kill of any fungi or pests. I've let it dry in between spraying the plant. Repeated four times so far, because I wasn't sure that the stem wasn't susceptible to infections (it looked a little weird). Everything dried down nicely again.
I currently wet the aerial roots manually multiple times a day until they are plump and green. All three roots are placed in a
bright room, that has a lot of light but never direct sunlight. I figured they'd need to photosynthesize as much as possible.
NOW. That's my story. Here are my questions:
-
What can I do to promote root growth? I've read about sphagnum moss and raising humidity around the stem. I don't know when I will get my hands on sphagnum moss, so is there another option?
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What do I do with the orchid now? Do I pot it with just the aerial roots? Do I wait until it forms new roots? Right now it just kind of hangs inside a concoction I came up with so it didn't squash its roots laying down. It's been six days like that.
Basically I just need to know if roots will grow if I pot it now as it is or if need to somehow induce root growth and then pot it.
I want to keep the risk of rotting as minimal as possible. So, to pot or not to pot?
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Do you have any tips on how to make all of them feel even better? I want all of them to pull through if possible.
I've attached some pictures so you can see what we're dealing with here.
1 Close up of the stem area with a new root growing?
2 Another close up of new roots (?), then one that broke off and whatever those black dots are on these stumps.
3 Remaing good roots and the dry one
4 Leaf close up
5 New leaf that grew a bit and then split 
6 Reference photo of another orchid that recovered well. Its new leaf doubled in size in the last couple of days!
Thank you for taking the time to read all of that and reply!
Save Phal with almost no roots
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