HELP! no roots-healthy looking phal

[plantaholic]

Had a healthy phal - new growth, several years old - but looked at it tonight and since one leaf looked a little puny, pulled it out of the pot to look at the roots. I wish I'd looked earlier. Had no idea that it was in this bad shape. I'd repotted it about three months ago in bark. I was keeping it in an indoor greenhouse with around 90% humidity, good air circulation, and temps ranging from 70 to 80. It was also in a clear plastic pot with excellent drainage. Any ideas of what to do to possibly save the plant? Is it possible? Any idea of what went wrong? Is it possible to have too much humidity?

[RosieC]

Are there completely no roots, or are there a few left?

If there any left, even small bits of root, then it will be much easier to save.

Can you show a pic of the plant and it's roots, that would help?

If there are none, then people here have saved them (althogh I've not managed it) search for something called Sphag-n-bag for one method.

If it has any roots left I would put it up in the tinyiest tinyiest pot you can fit the roots in. I have some tiny 2" pots. In one case I have a large Phal in a tiny 2" pot because most of the roots died. It's now growing wonderfully and will need to go in a larger pot soon. If the plant is in danger of toppling because of the size of the leaves then you can rest the small pot inside a larger one or inside a heavy outer cover pot to stop it falling over. If you can't get small pots then old food containers of the right size can also be used.

[RosieC]

As to why it happend. Well I had one which I repotted April 2008 and when I went away for a week in July 2008 it suddenly went hot and I came home to an almost dead plant. Turned out it had almost no roots.

The next two I repotted I watched more closely and it was quickly evident that their roots were also dying.

It turned out to be the medium I was using. It was already decaying in the bag when I bought it, but I was not experienced enough to realise this. When the second two started going the same way I got brand new medium from an orchid specialist and repotted them, they started to recover and the ones I have potted since in the better medium have not had the same problems.

As for the first one... It struggled for a long while and I tried lots of methods for saving it but it only started to actually recover once I got it in the tiny pot as I mentioned in the previous post. Now it's in flower... and it's current flowers are my avatar just now.

[plantaholic]

Absolutely no roots at all. Beautiful leaves and a new leaf about an inch+ but no roots. Right now, I just have it in a ziplock bag awaiting further instructions before throwing it out. Well, there are roots but they are rotten all the way to the stem.

[sii]

As for the first one... It struggled for a long while and I tried lots of methods for saving it but it only started to actually recover once I got it in the tiny pot as I mentioned in the previous post. Now it's in flower... and it's current flowers are my avatar just now.[/QUOTE]


Do you find that when you repot into a smaller pot that you have to water more frequently? I hope I'm not watering to much again.

[RosieC]

Really sorry I've not been back to this post, I've not been on OB for a few days and only just catching up.

Sii... yes you do have to water more often but that's part of what helps the plant. Because it dries quicker you water more often and the plant gets more water without the roots rotting (it dries quicker so the roots get more air so don't rot). I've found my Phals with only a few roots have responded really well to this.

Plantaholic, not sure if you've given up by now, but you might want to try Sphag-n-Bag. There are instructions in the link below. Some people here have managed to save them using this method, although I must admit it didn't help the one time I tried it.
Sphag-n-Bag

[jrodpad]

Rosie's advice on the S&B method is excellent - though with a rootless phal will still have a fairly high fail rate.

You might want to try coating the base of the phal with a thin layer of keikigrow paste. When I tried this with one of my healthy phals in an attempt to coax it into initiating a flower spike, it had the unexpected effect of producing a whole bunch of brand new, quickly growing roots that shot out in all directions from the base of the phal. I don't know if it would work on a phal in such bad shape, but at this point there's not much to loose, right?

Good luck!

- J

[nenella]

I have managed to bring back roots on phals with the S&B method. The way I have managed is to put the phal in a pot (as Rosie said) and put the moist sphag outside of the pot but in the bag.
Also I have found it works even better if you soak the rootless stump first in something like KLN. I have also found that taking it out the bag and re soaking at any stage (even with nubbins) once in while helps. When I soak I always make sure the roots/stump is dry before putting back in the plastic bag.
Re growing roots is very slow process, keep us posted.
Good luck!

[plantaholic]

Thanks all. Where does one get keikigrow paste or KLN?

[RosieC]

Not sure as I'm in the UK and get it from a UK seller, but KLN has to be imported from the USA to I'm sure there will be people who know where to get it there.