My Phal repotting problems!

[glitchathon]

So i have 2 phals that I repotted 2 weeks ago. I used Better Gro Phal mix which contains fir bark, charcoal, perlite, and peat moss pieces. I throw out most of the peat chunks and select the best pieces of the bark.
I also added a small 20% or so amount of sphagnum moss (NZ AAA stuff) to one of the orchid #1 which was previously in bark. And I used 60% sphag and 40% phal mix for orchid #2 which was previously in sphag.

Details of Orchid 1:
- Bought at Trader Joe's 4+ years ago. Bloomed every year. Potted in bark mix.
- Never repotted so media was pretty decomposed
- During repotting, 50% of roots were rotted, majority of good roots were aerial.
- I cut the rotted roots.
- Many roots were broken or had rotted areas, but had healthy extensions, so I kept those.
- Used sterilized scissors and cinnamon to protect from fungus.

Details of Orchid 2:
- Bought at Costco 6 months ago.
- Potted in 100% sphagnum moss, packed tight and very difficult to dry even after a week or two.
- about 30% of the roots were rotted. I cut those.
- Also had some fairly unhealthy roots but had healthy extensions or growth on the ends, so I kept those.
- Used sterilized scissors and cinnamon to protect from fungus.

Two weeks later...

Orchid 1:
- has some little white egg-like fungi or mold growing on the tips of the rotting roots.
- I decided to unpot it and inspect and clean them up.
- I find half the roots were now rotted! There is still healthy roots and good signs of root growth. But many of the old roots rotted real quickly during the 2 weeks after the repot.
- I cut off all bad roots and went even further and cut off those that had significant rotted areas even if other portions were healthy. Removed all fungus areas.
- Used all new media and repotted it in a smaller pot (since now there are fewer roots).

Orchid 2:
- No fungus but also had a large portion of previously healthy roots rot. So I unpotted and did same as above, going into fresh media into a smaller pot.

Is it normal to have a lot of rotted roots so shortly after a repot? Did i do the right thing going in and cleaning it up?

Is it possible the Better Gro mix is bad? The bark quality was kind of dark and wettish. How dry/fresh is it supposed to be? The stuff dried pretty quickly and I found the mix to get nearly bone dry within 4 days in the hot summer (it is on a windowsill with partial shade but we have no A/C so temps were 83 deg or so).

Thanks for any advice you can offer! I hope these Phals will recover!

[Izzie]

I use the Better Gro mix with no problems- it's the best I have available locally.

Did you sterilize the plants somehow before repotting? Like soaking in physan, or spraying with brown listerine? THat's a good practice for the future.

Did you presoak the media? It's also a good idea to soak your media in physan, both to clean it, and to get it nice and moist. I soak in boiling water the first couple times to really open the pores and help the new media hold more water.


For the fungus- you can spray the roots in hydrogen peroxide for a few minutes, and/or pour some through the media in the pot. I've had success with that when I get mold and other gucky stuff coming in after repotting.

[glitchathon]

Unfortunately I did not think of sterilizing the plant nor the media prior to repotting. I have some Physan solution on the way so will get into better habits in the future!

I presoaked for only an hour or so. Possibly could have gone longer.

Is root rot over a short period of time indicative of a fungal problem? Since 2 weeks seems awfully short for bad watering practices to rot so many roots! (and my watering practices should be OK),.

[Izzie]

Take a look at my Eradicating CHC mold thread in pests and diseases- I had something similar happen.

Do you have access to brown listerine? You can pour that through the pot, or soak for a minute or so. Many people have as good success with that as physan as an antibacterial/fungal. Just as a pot soak/spray/pour, not something to presoak media in.


With my media, I soak for 24 hours, with rounds of boiling water the first few times to leach out some of the tannins that can stain the roots, and really get the media to absorb water more readily.
Some people will boil the media for 30 min- does the same thing faster, and kills some of the icky stuff (though not all, which is why you should also use physan.)

[RosieC]

The first 3 times I repotted phals I had the same thing happen... I'm certain now that the medium was to blame.

While the Better Grow brand my be fine if it is damp when you take it out the bag the that is NOT a good thing. Medium should be bone dry and should be stored in a way that keeps it bone dry until you decide to use it (you should soak it first though).

If medium is stored damp then it will be decaying and going sour in the bag. That's what had happened with mine and unfortunately I didn't realise it, used it and almost killed three phals.

I always advise using medium from an orchid specialist even if that means ordering online because a. they know how to store it, b. they know what is good/bad quality, c. they have higher turn-over as non-specialists might not sell much of the stuff.

[Izzie]

You make a good point Rosie. It is hit and miss with these. I've been lucky so far- I also leave the bag open and mix it for several days just in case, to really get it dry. And I sniff it when I get home. If it smells funky, it gets returned. That's only happened once though.

When I've gotten the Better Gro mix, I always try to get there right after they get a new shipment in, or take from the back/bottom of the shelf where newer ones are often stored.

At this point, I just can't afford to buy online.

[glitchathon]

I can easily get some brown listerine. I assume I should mix with water?

RosieC, the media was not exactly damp, but definitely the bark had a little bit of moisture in it. But after leaving the bag open for a few weeks, the stuff is quite dry. There was no bad smell coming from it though. Do you think I should toss the bag and get new media? I do have S/H primeagra coming in the mail but not sure I want to shock the plants into a new media again.

[Izzie]

Nope, the nice thing about the listerine is that you can use it straight out of the bottle- they've diluted the alcohol for you! It's very well loved around here.

[RosieC]

Sounds like you take good steps Izzie.

Mine smelt musty and unfortunately I didn't realise at the time that that was a bad sign.

The stuff I buy online is so dry it has warnings on it that you should wear a face mask to avoid inhaling the dust.

After the first 3 I was wondering what on earth I was doing wrong because I was carefully following all the instructions I could find online and I was using listerine and just could not see why the roots kept dying. When I bought the new stuff online I suddenly found the problems disapeared and I was doing nothing else different.

[Izzie]

and fyi- the store brand of the brown mouth wash is exactly the same, a quarter of the price, and works just as well.