My first orchid ever, mini. Only one root left.

[legendarywildchild]

I got this mini orchid at the super market a while ago (my first orchid ever) She was doing super well in her little pot so I figured I was doing something right. The top leaf is entirely new since I got her. But then I noticed the bottom leaves getting limp. I pulled her out of the spongey stuff, and it seemed like all of her roots were rotted.

It's been about a week and the attached pictures are where we are.


I've cut off everything that wasn't looking too happy, now what? I'm a super beginner, I have no idea what's going on.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Phalaenopsis orchids are easy to grow if you give them warmth, low light, lots of air at the roots and plenty of water.

I recommend people never cut off roots. You can't tell what is alive or dead.

There is a great sticky thread here for beginners to Phalaenopsis growing. From the left yellow menu choose Forums then Beginners. Near the top look for the sticky thread The Phal abuse stops here.

[Orchidtinkerer]

Hi welcome to OB,
it still has a root which is all it needs to keep it alive however I don't like the black look of the stem.
Is that how you pulled it out the substrate or did you treat it with something?
If that is how it was it looks like whatever it is could spread and if that happens it will go downhill fast.
I'm not an expert on how to stop stem rot however, there are products that can stop infections spreading but I can't help with which one, an orchid specialist should be able to advise you more.

---------- Post added at 12:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:24 PM ----------

Originally Posted by estación seca

You can't tell what is alive or dead.

Most of us can ..

[legendarywildchild]

I haven't used anything on it except water. Is there still a stem on this orchid? I thought I cut it off when all the flowers fell off.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by legendarywildchild

I pulled her out of the spongey stuff, and it seemed like all of her roots were rotted.

One of the requirements for roots to survive is adequate oxygen. If regular roots of orchids remain water-logged or really wet for relatively long periods of time, then this can prevent enough oxygen from getting into the roots.

The orchid probably can actually grow in that spongy medium ------- provided the grower knows roughly when to water, and how much water to add. This can actually be tricky to do for growers that haven't yet determined a workable watering schedule for that kind of spongy media.

So growers can choose to use other media for orchids - such as bark, or bark/perlite mix, or bark/charcoal/perlite mix, or scoria. And the growers can also choose to use orchid pots with lots of holes at the bottom of the pot - so that water can drain easily from the pot, and also allows air to move nicely through the media in the pot whenever there is nice air-movement in the growing area.

And the bottom of the orchid pot should be kept free of drained water. This is for regular potting methods.

The orchid stem in your pics is still there. It does have a root that has grown upwards. For this kind of situation - this orchid might need a humidity tub that is kept at a nice comfortable temperature (and maybe a small ---- to cut down on chances of this orchid from drying out ----- to give it some time to grow new roots. If the humidity is too low ----- then this orchid could dry out. And drying out beyond some point will really significantly reduce chance of survival.