Healthy roots at last!

[stever_sl]

After losing orchid after orchid to root rot (no matter how infrequently I watered, it seemed) I finally took the advice of some of this forum's fine people about water culture, or semi-water, and saved a plant! The poor thing (unidentified, naturally) had one sickly root left to support 3-4 leaves, and was clearly not going to make it. So I trimmed off all the rotten brown junk from the bottom and suspended it in a large drinking glass half-full of water, so that about 1/2 inch of the lowest part of the plant was in the water. The hardest part - I just left it alone in an open-topped aquarium in front of a south-facing window with partial screening. Now, two months later, there are roots everywhere! Roots under the water, roots above the water. The plant has lots of new leaf growth, too. Right next to it I have a Phal in a cage with bark, and that's part 2 of the experiment - I don't water it directly, I just keep a bare skim of water in the bottom of the aquarium. The bottom layer of the bark stays wet, the rest just sees vapors, and that plant is also throwing out new roots and leaf growth for the first time. So I'm convinced - these plants CAN be saved after all!