HELP! I fear I have overwatered!

[desirue]

I'm worried I may have overwatered my orchid! I watered her at lunch today (she was repotted on Tuesday). When I came home from work (about 4 hours later) the aerial roots are still cold to the touch and my potted roots are still green/yellow. Is this normal for them to stay green/yellow for that long? I think this new carousel pot is giving me additional orchid anxiety now that I can clearly see everything, lol. If I have overwatered, this single mistake won't end up costing me dearly will it? Thank you for any help/advice.

[BrassavolaStars]

Hello Desirue,

That pot has so much air circulation that I think it would be very difficult to overwater. If you are ever worried about overwatering, you can always put the plant in front of a fan for a few hours.


To be honest though, the issue with orchids isn’t so much overwatering as it is wet medium blocking air circulation causing rot. This is something that I think would be very difficult to have happen in your set up. If you have plants mounted for example, you can water constantly and they are fine. The fan trick is more something I do for plants in poorly aerated pots with fine bark and moss.

That has just been my experience though and others might have different opinions.

The one thing you do want to be exceeding careful about with water is that it doesn’t get in between any of the leaves. That can be fatal. Aside, I think that plant is fine as long as it isn’t in a room with completely stagnant air.

[desirue]

Thank you so much for your response, it definitely eased my nerves! I've got a fan in the kitchen now. I get so much joy from my orchid and reading and learning and talking with others who share that joy. But I'm finding that the more I learn, the more stressed and anxious I get as well. I just really, really want my orchid to flourish. I've gotten quite attached to it over the past year (as is evidenced by all of my posts, lol!)

[BrassavolaStars]

Originally Posted by desirue

Thank you so much for your response, it definitely eased my nerves! I've got a fan in the kitchen now. I get so much joy from my orchid and reading and learning and talking with others who share that joy. But I'm finding that the more I learn, the more stressed and anxious I get as well. I just really, really want my orchid to flourish. I've gotten quite attached to it over the past year (as is evidenced by all of my posts, lol!)

I have the same orchid anxiety. If you look in my post history, you will find a lot of frantic posts here.

I think your plant is probably at very little risk for overwatering/air circulation issues in that pot.

You probably would also not want the fan too close/strong because of this.

Because of the pot you have, the orchid could be more prone to drying out excessively (especially if you have low humidity). This is a good condition to have for the most part as it staves away rots.

That said if it is a quick dry pot already and you put a fan too close as if blow drying the plant, it could dry so much that the roots desiccate. This is something I have learned the hard way once before.

It is always an advantage to have a running fan in the room to circulate the room air so it isn’t stagnant, but that plant should dry in the perfect amount of time and have fine circulation with a fan in the room, but not really particularly close to the plant itself as that pot should give it more than enough circulation to begin with.

The roots look very good and healthy by the way. If you have had it in this condition for a year, you’ve probably been doing a great job with it.

[K-Sci]

I agree with BrassavolaStars. Your plant looks great!
Overwatering happens when you keep the media too wet for too long. It usually happens over several waterings. Phalaenopsis don't like to become totally dry, so the best time to water is just before the media becomes completely dry.

-Keith

[estación seca]

No epiphytic orchid dies from overwatering. They die from lack of air at the roots.

If temperatures are correct, Phal roots are potted in large chunks of any medium, and there are good air spaces around the roots, you can water every day and not have problems. Your Phal looks like it fits into this category.

[Ray]

What he said…

The issue is suffocation, not exposure to water.

See if you can find photos or videos of orchids in the wild. They are often dripping wet at all times. Even those with distinct “dry rest” periods are wet from fog and dew. (The “rest” occurs because reduced rain = reduced nutrition.)

[desirue]

Thanks so much everyone for your replies. My roots + media seemed to have already dried out mostly so I'll definitely have to water more often. But I now I can do it without crippling over-watering anxiety. I appreciate the help, as always.

[estación seca]

I have some plants in LECA, which is spheres of fired clay. There is plenty of air. I wish I had time to water once a day in the growing season, but work gets in the way.