Phalaenopsis orchid shriveled and wrinkly roots

[luckylucy]

Hello,

The phalaenopsis roots sitting on top of the bark medium are shriveled and wrinkly. Some are dry and whitish grey. However, most roots within the bark medium are fairly green and normal. At first I thought it was ok for roots to be dry at the top of medium however they look ghastly thin and the dryness is spreading down to the roots in the medium.

My watering schedule is once a week where I run water through it thoroughly, let it drain out and then water it again with a mixture of water and liquid fertilizer. It is currently summer here in NZ, should I increase the watering to twice a week?
These past two days I've been misting it with water in the morning and have placed it on a humidity tray however I do not see a healthy change. Do I need more patience? What am I doing wrong? What should/shouldn't I do? Please teach me! Thank you

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[Orchidtinkerer]

Hi,
welcome to OB.
Looking at your pot it looks suspiciously like one side of the pot has healthy roots and the opposite side has all shrivelled roots.

This happens when a phal gets too much sun. What it does it cook the sunside of the pot and the back side will stay cooler and retain and condense the moisture in the pot.

A little bit of sun is ok but too much over a prolonged period of time will start to do damage and cause what I refer to as "bleaching" of the leaves or sunburn (although sunburn is generally caused by excess heat, for phals excess light can also do damage, they cannot tolerate the same as cattleyas). Either way I reckon I can see the early signs of such bleaching or sun damage.

Move it into a shadier spot and if you want place the pot inside a decorative container to stop the sun heating the roots as much

Don't worry about the shrivelled roots too much, it will grow new ones in time and won't affect the plant as long as it has healthy roots to sustain it - in summer it might benefit from additional watering to keep the roots a bit more hydrated.

[luckylucy]

Hello,

That could definitely be the case as some leaves have turned a reddish brown around the edges. I'll move it to a shadier location asap. Thanks for the advice!

[aliceinwl]

The white roots just look dry to me. Maybe try soaking and see if they green up? I grow some of my Phals pretty close to south and east facing windows that get a little direct sun. Keeping these in a clay or ceramic cache pot to reduce heating in the root zone does the trick for me, but if you’re seeing leaf burning (not just purpling) then it’s probably too much sun.

[luckylucy]

I've placed it in a ceramic pot close to a east facing window. Will soak it tomorrow morning. Hope all goes well. Thanks for the advice!