Help! Is this root rot?

[SADE2020]

It does have some rotten or dry roots but there is nothing you can really do while in flower, just wait and enjoy the flowers and when is done repot, but must of the roots are healthy and that's what matters.

You can mist lightly every other day. Also you can creat more humidity by placing some pebbles in the plate. However your temperatures are fine, intead of shower, bath the container for way longer (soaking).

Good 👍 luck, beautiful flowers

[estación seca]

If you have a spot outside with no sun at all, it will be FAR happier outside now. Phals prefer warm to hot temperatures and high humidity.

[alopez1021]

We recently moved into our town house so we don’t have anything outside in our patio yet. There is a section with some shade throughout the day that I could move it to later, I’m just unable to at the moment

---------- Post added at 11:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:49 AM ----------

Originally Posted by SADE2020

It does have some rotten or dry roots but there is nothing you can really do while in flower, just wait and enjoy the flowers and when is done repot, but must of the roots are healthy and that's what matters.

You can mist lightly every other day. Also you can creat more humidity by placing some pebbles in the plate. However your temperatures are fine, intead of shower, bath the container for way longer (soaking).

Good 👍 luck, beautiful flowers

Okay! When it’s time to repot should I cut off the rotten/dry roots? What about the aerial roots, will I have to cut those or will I be able to rescue them by misting? Thank you so much!!

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[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by alopez1021

Okay! When it’s time to repot should I cut off the rotten/dry roots? What about the aerial roots, will I have to cut those or will I be able to rescue them by misting? Thank you so much!!

If there's still a significant amount of good roots, then it's generally ok to cut off rotten and/or dry roots.

Misting could help, but maybe that would be more effective in an area where automatic misting or even a humidifier could help. misting manually would probably require too much effort and time.

[Roberta]

Aerial roots are likely to be the best roots of all. When you repot, you can "tease" them into the medium... soaking the plant well will soften them so that they are more flexible. Then gently twist as you pot the plant into the pot. If, in the process, the coating (velamin) cracks, not a problem - the core is the active part of the root, the velamin is a "storage mechanism". But soak well, and be as gentle as you can. Unless the "core" of the bad roots is rotten all the way through, leave those too. You can remove rotten velamin, but the core of old roots still can function somewhat, and also serve to help to stabilize the plant in the new medium - it's important for it to not wobble.

[alopez1021]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Aerial roots are likely to be the best roots of all. When you repot, you can "tease" them into the medium... soaking the plant well will soften them so that they are more flexible. Then gently twist as you pot the plant into the pot. If, in the process, the coating (velamin) cracks, not a problem - the core is the active part of the root, the velamin is a "storage mechanism". But soak well, and be as gentle as you can. Unless the "core" of the bad roots is rotten all the way through, leave those too. You can remove rotten velamin, but the core of old roots still can function somewhat, and also serve to help to stabilize the plant in the new medium - it's important for it to not wobble.

That makes sense! In one of my pictures you can see where one of the roots velamin has cracked and it is starting to rot I think. I'm not sure if it's rotten all the way through since the rest is inside the pot. I checked the core of that root today and it looks like it's beginning to turn brown, it was a tannish color before. This root stems from another root which still looks healthy.

[Roberta]

Still, don't rush to cut any roots. A cracked root may branch and make a new one. With fresh medium, you have removed the unhealthy environment that had roots rotting. The "treatment" is just more access to air so that the roots thrive and the rot doesn't. When you water, water well - so that it runs out of the pot. That flushes "crud" and also pulls air into the root zone. Then, as the water evaporates, it is replace by... guess what... AIR. To get a handle on how often to water (fresh medium is going to need it more than with the old soggy stuff) one trick is to water well, then weigh the pot on a postal scale or kitchen scale. Then next day, weigh again. When the rate of weight loss starts to level out (not much more water to lose) it's time to water again. After a few rounds of this procedure, you'll have a good feel for the needed frequency and won't need to go through the exercise.

[alopez1021]

That's such a helpful tool for learning water frequency, thank you!! I will use this method next time I water. So last time I watered I did the soaking for a few minutes method. I haven't flushed water through it because we have hard water where I live so I've used purified drinking water that we have bought. I wasn't sure if hard water would leave too much deposit. Does the type of water make a difference?

---------- Post added at 03:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:29 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Roberta

Still, don't rush to cut any roots. A cracked root may branch and make a new one. With fresh medium, you have removed the unhealthy environment that had roots rotting. The "treatment" is just more access to air so that the roots thrive and the rot doesn't. When you water, water well - so that it runs out of the pot. That flushes "crud" and also pulls air into the root zone. Then, as the water evaporates, it is replace by... guess what... AIR. To get a handle on how often to water (fresh medium is going to need it more than with the old soggy stuff) one trick is to water well, then weigh the pot on a postal scale or kitchen scale. Then next day, weigh again. When the rate of weight loss starts to level out (not much more water to lose) it's time to water again. After a few rounds of this procedure, you'll have a good feel for the needed frequency and won't need to go through the exercise.

That's such a helpful tool for learning water frequency, thank you!! I will use this method next time I water. So last time I watered I did the soaking for a few minutes method. I haven't flushed water through it because we have hard water where I live so I've used purified drinking water that we have bought. I wasn't sure if hard water would leave too much deposit. Does the type of water make a difference?

[Roberta]

Phalaenopsis plants are not particularly fussy about water quality. (That's also true of most of the hybrid orchids of other types that you're likely to acquire) It is much better to flush well (even if the water isn't wonderful) than to dribble in smaller amounts of more costly purchased water. (There are some orchids that need pure water, but mostly the small cloud-forest species. Some day you may get hooked on those, but not an issue now )

[alopez1021]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Phalaenopsis plants are not particularly fussy about water quality. (That's also true of most of the hybrid orchids of other types that you're likely to acquire) It is much better to flush well (even if the water isn't wonderful) than to dribble in smaller amounts of more costly purchased water. (There are some orchids that need pure water, but mostly the small cloud-forest species. Some day you may get hooked on those, but not an issue now )

Well that's really good to know! I definitely will expand my collection later once I grasp the care system better, it's a process, but so worth it. Thank you so much for your help!