Phal roots dying after repot.. please help! - Orchid Board

Aslan14 · #1 03-11-2011, 01:19 PM

I have a couple of Phal's that I recently repotted and both are now suffering. One had just flower spiked when I noticed the bottom couple of leaves started to wrinkle then fall off. It ended up aborting the flower spike. When I pulled it out of the medium (mixture of fir bark and a bit of orchid "soil"), some of the roots were brown with white spots on them and obviously rotten.

The second one I potted in straight fir bark a while back, but just recently noticed the leaves not doing well. When I pulled that one out of the medium, all of the roots that were in the medium were brown and dead or alive with dead ends.

The first phal I mentioned I ended up repotting in a mixture of lava rock, charcoal, perlite, and small/medium fir bark. It seems to be doing better, the leaves have not continued to turn yellow and fall off.

The other one is sitting in a bowl right now and I soak it every couple of days, then just let it sit out. I am honestly afraid to repot it, as I don't want to lose the few remaining roots.

Was I overwatering? The second one was in a pot with good ventilation, it was an "orchid pot" with large holes in the sides. The first one was in a closed pot, but with good drainage.

I have heard that orchids are more forgiving if you underwater them than if you over water them, but for some reason it seems like I can't figure it out. I have 20 other orchids that seems like they are doing ok, a few of them are flower spiking (like my Zygopetalum, I cannot tell you how excited I am over this!!). But after this I am wondering if I need to rethink my entire process here. Some of my orchids rebloom so easily, and some are more stubborn, like a really picky oncidium that I have not been able to get to rebloom in three years even with good watering and fertilizer.

Any feedback would be great, thanks!!

Eyebabe · #2 03-11-2011, 03:36 PM

What happens frequently in fir bark is an over drying of the roots due to low humidity followed by overwatering which creates rot.
Watering more frequently does not supplement or help to "cancel out" the effects of low humidity on an orchid. In fact, it expedites the demise of the roots.
So your roots need to be less wet and more humid.
I generally try to work forward from there. Some of my phals will do fine in fir bark and others are in sphag moss and still yet some in s/h depending upon achieving this balance.
Phals are not very forgiving imo when compared to some other species like catts

Good luck!

Val · #3 03-11-2011, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eyebabe

What happens frequently in fir bark is an over drying of the roots due to low humidity followed by overwatering which creates rot.
Watering more frequently does not supplement or help to "cancel out" the effects of low humidity on an orchid. In fact, it expedites the demise of the roots.
So your roots need to be less wet and more humid.

I'm a beginner trying to understand how orchids work.
I was under the impression that a fast wet-dry cycle is good for Phals., and this is what I've been aiming at. It seems so much easier to water more frequently (but only when the roots are almost dry) than to keep a certain level of moisture.

I guess you are suggesting avoiding straight bark, and using it mixed with a moisture-retentive medium.

I've read that "you can never water your Phals too much, but you can water them to often", which means that misting the top of the medium (in order to slow the drying of the medium) wouldn't be a good idea.

Did I get it right?

Eyebabe · #4 03-11-2011, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Val

I'm a beginner trying to understand how orchids work.
I was under the impression that a fast wet-dry cycle is good for Phals., and this is what I've been aiming at. It seems so much easier to water more frequently (but only when the roots are almost dry) than to keep a certain level of moisture.

I guess you are suggesting avoiding straight bark, and using it mixed with a moisture-retentive medium.

I've read that "you can never water your Phals too much, but you can water them to often", which means that misting the top of the medium (in order to slow the drying of the medium) wouldn't be a good idea.

Did I get it right?

Not quite right...
But that is because phals are not particularly easy to grow in a home where humidity runs in the 30's.
AOS website has culture sheets which can be printed out and referenced for many species including phals.
Humidity for phals is ideally 80%

Just think about where they grow.
They are considered a "low light" orchid requiring about 1500 candles.
They should not have roots that are wet for prolonged periods of time or that sit in water, so yes the roots do need to "dry" but the media should never completely dry out.

One of my best orchid books that got me started was Orchids for Dummies (and I mean absolutely no slight whatsoever it is truly a really really good reference when you are getting started!)
There are tips in there that are very useful like using a tray of pebbles with water to raise local humidity for the plants etc.
And when you are not sure, it is very useful to look up the climate of where the plants grow and try to mimic that.

Part of the fun of orchids is that there is no "simple" answer for anything

RosieC · #5 03-13-2011, 09:32 AM

Personally I like plain fir bark, but then it's more humid in the UK. I aim for a mix that dries in about 7 days and my phals seem to like that.

My first thought on your problem is about the quality of the medium. My first 3 phals I repotted all had exactly the same problem and I was at a loss as to what I was doing wrong with repotting. It was quite some time before I realised the medium I had used was already broken down and decaying and was the cause of the problems.

Aslan14 · #6 03-16-2011, 11:42 AM

Thanks everyone! I am going to repot the two phals in question this weekend and cross my fingers :-)

I have another question though.. I am going away for a month this summer, and I am going to be relying on my mother to water my orchids while I am gone. I have a couple that are planted in fir bark, and they dry out rather quickly. I have to water them every 4 or 5 days. Is there something I can do so they retain a bit more moisture so I can extend the watering time out to 7 days, but without repotting? I don't want to shock them, as a couple of them are flower spiking.

Val · #7 03-16-2011, 07:57 PM

I believe most Phals wouldn't really mind being watered every 7 days instead of every 5-6 days for a month.

If you're not comfortable with the above, you could just place them 1 ft further from the window, which should slow their metabolism down a bit so they will use less water. (Or any other way to decrease the amount of light they get by 20-30%.)