Newly repotted phal with orange balls and white moss on roots

[fourhills]

Hello, I'm new here but I've been gifted many orchids, so I've owned a few for quite some time now. I've only recently realised they needed repotting so I went ahead with that about 2 weeks ago.

I've noticed that the bottom leaves of my phals are yellowing and look into the medium and the new roots have these orange/red balls stuck on them and it looks like a white moss kind of texture is coming from it too.

Any clue what exactly this is and whether I should repot it again?

Thanks guys

[Afid]

Hmm... sounds like some sort of fungus, do you have pictures?

[JScott]

It's impossible to tell without a picture, but it sounds to me like you have a fungus, and the little orange balls are probably the fruiting bodies of the fungus. Physan 20 is a good everything-cide that is widely available. Unless you post a picture and we realize that it is something entirely different going on, I would say it wouldn't hurt to treat the plants with Physan. It's a good thing to keep on hand anyway for when something comes up. I don't use it very often, but it sure does come in handy on the occasions when I do have to use it. If we are wrong and it is not a fungus, the Physan won't hurt your plant at all, so other than the cost of buying a bottle (I get it on Amazon but have no idea how much it costs. It is not expensive) you've got nothing to lose.

[fourhills]

Untitled — Phal orchid issues

I've lost the photo I took before trying to remove all the little balls that were stuck to the area where you see white There are still a few left on the root that I hope show up in the photo and the white stuff was the sticky mossy thing that I found around the balls.

Thanks for the help so far guys!

[Ray]

Any time you repot, there is stress to the root system, as immediately upon transplanting to a new localized environment, the existing roots are no longer optimal. (Hence the yellowing of the lower leaves.) There will be some root loss. The greater the difference between old and new condition the more extensive and more rapid the loss will be. Only necrotic tissue rots; healthy tissue does not.

Repotting a second time only adds more stress and does nothing to alleviate anything. The "trick" is 1) relieving other stress on the plant, and 2) encouraging new root growth.

Keep the plant VERY warm to encourage growth, and VERY humid to prevent desiccation.