orchid (i think it's a Phalaenopsis) root death

[minimiss]

Hi,

I had two different orchids, that I think I may have been overwatering.

One dropped all its leaves over the Easter weekend while I was away, so I decided to pull it out of its pot and the potting mix (solely moss) had green mold/fungus on it, and the roots were completely hooped. Sadly, I had to throw it away.

This made me super worried about my last remaining orchid plant. I got it for Valentines day, and it had tons of flower buds which recently all started dropping off. So today, after searching online for awhile, I decided to repot it and trim away any dead or rotting roots. The majority of the roots were either dried up or spotted and kinda mouldy looking.

My question is this, can my orchid make a comeback?

It's now repotted in a looser potting mix (bark, moss, etc). It has 2 new stems budding up, and I'll be heartbroken if I kill this one too.

How often should I water it at this point? I don't want to overwater again, but I worry that it'll dry up because of the very compromised root system.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

[RosieC]

Hi and welcome to orchid board.

It can be possible to save them, but tricky because (as you have realised) if the root system is bad it's difficult to get enough water in to them... watering more won't help just rot the roots.

How many roots are left and what sort of length are they. I've rescued one from just a couple of roots about 2 inches long each.

I think the key for me was potting it in a very small pot, only just big enough for the roots. This way the medium dried quite quickly and I could water more often. In a larger pot I had problems that even though the roots were dry the medium wasn't and watering enough for the roots caused the medium to start going quite nasty looking.

[trdyl]

Welcome to OB!

Along with what Rosie has already said, I would cut off the flower spike to let the plant put its energy into producing more roots.

[RosieC]

Agreed. I forgot that bit, but I would remove the spike as well.