What are these little red things on my orchid roots?

[spinrah]

Hi all, I’m seeing this same issue now on an otherwise healthy phal potted in semi-hydro. It’s just on the tip of a couple of its decaying roots. Just wondering if it would be okay to cut those parts of the roots off? They are close to the surface of the pot so I could easily cut them.

[spinrah]

Here are a couple photos, it’s tough to see cause it’s not very much, but I’d like to nip this in the butt before it becomes a big problem. I have circled the relevant parts of the photos.

The orchid is otherwise very happy and in bloom. It was moved to semi-hydro from sphagnum moss 2 months ago.

[Roberta]

I don't see anything problematical. Being near the surface, if there IS anything fungal there, it will dry up. (You have addressed the bad-medium problem) Especially if the plant is in bloom, better not to disturb anything that you don't have to.

[spinrah]

Originally Posted by Roberta

I don't see anything problematical. Being near the surface, if there IS anything fungal there, it will dry up. (You have addressed the bad-medium problem) Especially if the plant is in bloom, better not to disturb anything that you don't have to.

It's probably hard to see in the photo, but if you look really closely there are lots of tiny red/orange dots on those roots that I circled. They look like the dots that were on the orchid in the first post of this thread. I am guessing it is fungus on decaying roots.

[Roberta]

If the environment is no longer conducive to growing things that you don't want to grow, you don't have to treat, nature will take care of things. You might have those spore bodies, but if they find a dry, well-ventilated world if they do anything (they may just die before producing anything) they won't reproduce.

[spinrah]

Originally Posted by Roberta

If the environment is no longer conducive to growing things that you don't want to grow, you don't have to treat, nature will take care of things. You might have those spore bodies, but if they find a dry, well-ventilated world if they do anything (they may just die before producing anything) they won't reproduce.

Ah, okay. These little guys did show up very recently - they weren't there when I first re-potted the orchid in semi-hydro. I'm guessing they like dry and dying roots? They are only on the tips of the couple of roots that are dry and decaying. The rest of the orchid roots are totally healthy from the looks of it. It's just so tempting to snip those pieces off!