My Orchid has No Roots!!!

[orchidgirl82]

Hi Everyone,

I am hoping you can help me.

I bought an orchid and it had a few pests in it...

I tried soaking it and long story short i rotted all the roots. I have 12 other orchids and I do great with them, but for some reason all the gorgeous Magenta phals i buy always die. I dont know what it is...anyone else have issues with the magenta variety??

Anyway, All the roots are gone and I am left with a brown stump. It is so beautiful and I am trying to save it.

I cut off all the dead rotted roots with a sterile blade, (which left me with none) and soaked the stump in a water mixture w/ physan 20 followed by pouring some cinnamon on it. I read about the Sphag and bag so i put what was left of my orchid in a tiny clear pot with some orchid bark and put the whole thing in a plastic ziploc.

After one day i noticed it was getting mold on it so i opened the bag to some air and put it on my windowsill with my other orchids. The leaves are still firm and it is definitely moist in the bag.

Is there something else i should be doing to get it to survive and grow roots?? I REALLY don't want it to die. It is such a pretty one!

Thanks so much!

[WhiteRabbit]

I have recentlly had success mounting a rootless phal - started growing new roots very quickly.
Another phal that I have had no roots and only one limp leaf for some time - have had it in a small plastic pot with a very small amount of sphag draped around the rhizome and in the past couple of weeks it has finally started first a new leaf and a few days later a new root.

I am sure others will have suggestions as well - it isn't hopeless.

[Vina]

I had success with plastic bag method many times. But I put them ON glass jar half filled with water. I used ones with narrow neck so my phals couldn't drop in the jar, they were kind of hanging over the water. Then I put the jar with hanging phal in plastic bag for 4-6 weeks, opening it every day for some time, from time to time I changed the water in jar.

[Royal]

It sounds kind of counter intuitive, but keeping it on the dry side usually encourages root growth. It will still benefit from a humid environment but keep the root zone relatively dry. Mounting it or hanging in a jar over water are perfect examples of this. If it has NO roots, it can't absorb water anyways. It's the light, air, humidity combo that is most crucial here.