Help me save this root and stem rotted Phalaenopsis

[estación seca]

If you cut the stem off, including the roots, it doesn't have a chance. That's why I suggested shaving off the brown parts while leaving the roots. I don't know what will happen but that is what I would do.

I would definitely get it out of the old pot. The fungus is still there in the medium. After the shaving part I would let it dry on a table in the house for a day, then pot into a new, washed container with the pebbles or pumice you have. Water once every 2-3 days to keep the medium around the roots moist. If the plant is able to fight off the infection it will make new roots and grow.

[yomnaorchids]

Originally Posted by estación seca

If you cut the stem off, including the roots, it doesn't have a chance. That's why I suggested shaving off the brown parts while leaving the roots. I don't know what will happen but that is what I would do.

I would definitely get it out of the old pot. The fungus is still there in the medium. After the shaving part I would let it dry on a table in the house for a day, then pot into a new, washed container with the pebbles or pumice you have. Water once every 2-3 days to keep the medium around the roots moist. If the plant is able to fight off the infection it will make new roots and grow.

Oh okay...you mean cut sideways/vertically to remove the outer rotten part right?

[estación seca]

Yes. Cut the old stem horizontally below the lowest good root. Shave the upper brown parts vertically at the base of the plant.

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

I agree with most of the advice you've received so far. Saving this plant will take some time, but it looks possible.

I believe estación seca has correctly assessed the reason this plant lost its roots - it appears to have been planted in media that retained too much moisture and excluded air from reaching the roots.

Phalaenopsis require more moisture at the roots than most other orchids. The partial shriveling of the roots in your photo indicate that your plant is already beginning to sacrifice roots for moisture. The existing healthy roots will be lost if kept too dry.

- I would not submerge the bottom of the stem in water under any circumstances.

- The idea media will keep the remaining roots continuously slightly moist without keeping them wet. The ideal media for this is sphagnum. If you can't get sphagnum, well, this is ruled out.


- Plan B - This is intensive care. To save the plant, you need to give the remaining roots as much water as possible, but without keeping them continuously wet. One way is to spray or moisten the roots with a paper towel every time they turn silver, but -again - without keeping any part of the plant continuously moist. Depending on the humidity and air movement, this could be as often as hourly, or only 2-3 times per day. If possible, moisten the roots without getting the rest of the plant wet.

- You also need to reduce evaporation from the leaves and roots by keeping the humidity up around the plant. This can be accomplished by putting an unsealed plastic bag over plant after it has dried along with a moist paper towel that doesn't touch the plant.


A fungicide wouldn't hurt, but no hydrogen peroxide on the already weak roots.


-Keith

[Thriodien]

Now i took the time to read on hydrogen peroxide (coz it was bugging me that i still don't get if it's good or bad) and i see that opinions differ even here on OB about it So yomnaorchids please rather don't use it, i wouldn't want to be the one with a possible bad advice on this already tough situation

Thx ES for the link, that's a great website i haven't seen before!

[yomnaorchids]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Yes. Cut the old stem horizontally below the lowest good root. Shave the upper brown parts vertically at the base of the plant.

Thanks so much for this advice. Today in the morning the "collar rot" had advanced and the stem at the bottom was even mushy. I sterilized a cutting tool (heated it in a flame and then dipped into 6% bleach) and cut vertically until I removed all the rot. Unfortunately, I lost a leaf because I had to cut into the part of the stem it was anchored to. I then washed the bottom of the plant with filtered water and dried it as much as possible with a paper towel. I also dusted the stem with cinnamon.

As K-Sci said, the remaining roots aren't looking too good so I'll just try to spray them whenever they get silver. For today I left the orchid out to dry the stem and prevent the rot from reoccurring. Tomorrow I'll suspend it in a pot with pebbles at the bottom and mist/spray whenever the roots are dry. I guess the strategy now is to keep it alive as long as possible until it grows new roots.

Question: I'm definitely done experimenting and trying every possible solution on this orchid, but has anyone tried immersing the leaves in water to hydrate them a bit? The leaves are getting quite wrinkly now.

Anyways, here are the photos of how it looks today. Today is September 7, I'll try to update this thread in a month on October 7 in case anyone is interested to see how it does.

Thanks so much everyone for all your help!

[Roberta]

Alas, orchids can't absorb significant water through their leaves - there is a "waxy" coating (cuticle) that serves the purpose of slowing down water loss, and so water just runs off. (Orchids in nature have evolved this strategy to deal with the fact that they grow with roots exposed, on branches of trees. When it rains they absorb water through the roots, but when the rain stops they need to be able to hold on to that water) This is why "foliar feeding" of orchids doesn't do much... once the fertilizer water rolls off the leaves it gets into the medium where the roots can utilize it, so people think they're accomplishing something with the approach... would be more efficient, and not leave spots on the leaves, if they just directed the fertilizer toward the root zone in the first place.

[Thriodien]

@yomnaorchids How is it doing?

[Shadeflower]

seems I missed this post, just skimmed over it now. Quite intersting to see so many people would treat this differently.
Considering about 10 different approaches have been suggested from peroxide to no peroxide this is how I have lost my phals when I have lost them.

the stem rots from the bottom and the rot keeps inching up the stem month at a time.

On my very last one it happened I'd had enough of losing a phal to stem rot so I sliced all the rot away.

If that had been done from when the problem was first discovered then 2 roots could have been saved.

Since then the rot has crept past those two roots already and nothing will stop it till it eventually reaches the crown.

A lot more needs to be cut off. I had to cut till I was no longer cutting into brown.

It might have been a very extreme measure and maybe it wasn't needed (although something to penetrate and stop the rot would have been)

but the phal is still alive months later and has grown two new roots. I am glad I decided to do drastic surgery as just like on this one the rot was progressing a tiny bit every week.

I know it can be hard to diagnose on a picture, sometimes the stem will look brown but have no active infection.

But if it is spreading like it is on this one more needs to be cut off. All the rot, otherwise it will just start spreading again.

By now it is already very late and the longer one waits the less chance the phal has of being able to produce new roots.

I know it has been advised not to do what I am suggesting so I am glad I did not suggest it early on but by now it is clear this phal is hanging on by a thread.

In about a month the rot will have reached the crown.

Talking from experience unfortunately. But I have managed to stop it at least so there is a way even if I believe there probably is a better fungicide product I should have for such a situation.

edit:

I believe phyton would solve the problem without resorting to my drastic measure, the only thing is phyton costs as much as 3 supermarket phals here so the age old question, do you do some surgery and save buying an expensive fungicide, possibly buy new orchids or do you invest in a porduct you will only need once a year and has an expiry date on it...

[yomnaorchids]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

seems I missed this post, just skimmed over it now. Quite intersting to see so many people would treat this differently.
Considering about 10 different approaches have been suggested from peroxide to no peroxide this is how I have lost my phals when I have lost them.

the stem rots from the bottom and the rot keeps inching up the stem month at a time.

On my very last one it happened I'd had enough of losing a phal to stem rot so I sliced all the rot away.

If that had been done from when the problem was first discovered then 2 roots could have been saved.

Since then the rot has crept past those two roots already and nothing will stop it till it eventually reaches the crown.

A lot more needs to be cut off. I had to cut till I was no longer cutting into brown.

It might have been a very extreme measure and maybe it wasn't needed (although something to penetrate and stop the rot would have been)

but the phal is still alive months later and has grown two new roots. I am glad I decided to do drastic surgery as just like on this one the rot was progressing a tiny bit every week.

I know it can be hard to diagnose on a picture, sometimes the stem will look brown but have no active infection.

But if it is spreading like it is on this one more needs to be cut off. All the rot, otherwise it will just start spreading again.

By now it is already very late and the longer one waits the less chance the phal has of being able to produce new roots.

I know it has been advised not to do what I am suggesting so I am glad I did not suggest it early on but by now it is clear this phal is hanging on by a thread.

In about a month the rot will have reached the crown.

Talking from experience unfortunately. But I have managed to stop it at least so there is a way even if I believe there probably is a better fungicide product I should have for such a situation.

edit:

I believe phyton would solve the problem without resorting to my drastic measure, the only thing is phyton costs as much as 3 supermarket phals here so the age old question, do you do some surgery and save buying an expensive fungicide, possibly buy new orchids or do you invest in a porduct you will only need once a year and has an expiry date on it...

Unfortunately, this orchid looks much worse now and only has two leaves (including one that was new and tiny) so I think it's a hopeless case but I'm not ready to give up yet. Say I cut off all the rot completely, what is your setup for the orchid with no roots and barely any leaves? Put it in a closed container with some moist medium? Would really appreciate knowing about your set up. In particular, I'm worried about putting it in a setup that will just continue the rotting.