should my Paphs roots look like this?

[Wolfe4372]

so out of curiousity and the fact that my plant seems to stillhave moist substrate after 2 weeks of me not watering i pulled it out of the pot to fluff the substrate a bit so it would dry out a bit and i found in its pot styrofoam peanuts and over packed substrate, one of the roots looks broken and they are all brown. i also have a brown leaf, what should i do?

[Wolfe4372]

sorry if thats a bit garbled im, just trying to type it all out and remember all the stuff i was gonna mention.

[Wolfe4372]

and i forgot my pics

[Cyplover]

looks fine to me

[RJSquirrel]

nice healthy plant with fine roots indeed!!..a little new one there so just gently peel off the old leaf around it .Should just come off as its done its job. Potted in moss w/ the styro, thats fine.The moss was to keep the growers from having to water too often and the styrofoam gave the roots lots of air space. The plants stay wet and you dont want the roots sitting in the mooosh too.You can put it back that way or use bark..You will have to water more with the bark mix..You can almost plant paphs in anything as long as they dont stay too wet and soggy.They do fine

good luck and be sure at night drop the temps on the paph plants 10-15 degrees if you want bloomers

[Wolfe4372]

ok well i repacked it, though not as tight, and got rid of the styro and got rid of the nasty leaf.

[RosieC]

Paph roots are very different to Phal roots. Where Phal roots are green Paph roots are brown and sometimes hairy. Those roots look fine, they should feel firm (not hollow) and if so they are great.

I think you are doing the right thing to repot but not as tightly.

[RJSquirrel]

Paph roots take on the coloring of the mix....the darker rooted plants grown in bark the lighter rooted plants grown in sphagnum. S/H roots are sometimes even lighter colored to almost bone white.

Since paphs dont have psuedo bulbs, the hairy roots provide a wider area to collect water and nutrients in usually pretty bad substrate. Most these plants naturally grow under trees in the leaves, sides of a hill, cracks in rocks on mountains, or even in a tree crotch up in the air.

If you let the roots dry out too often they will get matted and start to look like they having a bad hair day and end up looking mummified as one put it. Thats when you start to have trouble bec they lose the ability to move the water and air up into the plant efficiently.