phal root system

[catweazle1962]

hi can you please take a look at the picture and advise what is wrong we are watering evey 10 days and feeding with a ratio of 30 10 10 . with orchid grow more feed but the roots dont look right on the top of the pot thanks

[Ray]

Those look to be quite dehydrated.

Phals like to stay evenly moist, and in that really coarse medium you have there, they are probably drying out fairly rapidly.

Can you tell us how often you feed, and how much you mix with a liter of water? Excessive fertilizer application can have an impact on the roots, as well, especially if your water is already pretty heavily laden with dissolved minerals.

[catweazle1962]

hi thankyou for your reply we are watering every 10 days to 2 weeks but we have a stick in the pot to test if it is dry , feeding 1 teaspoon per gallon of water thanks

[RosieC]

Often in the UK, especially over the winter, the surface roots can dry while those in the pot are still to wet.

I've just re-potted one I was worried about, because all it's surface roots are dehydrated/dried out like yours, even while those in the medium are lovely roots... unfortunately as I suspected, because the plant was sideways and it's base out of the pot all the lovely lower roots are connected to the plant via dried up top portions. Hopefully you don't have that same problem as it looks like your plant is more upright.

Anyway, if the pot is still wet for 10-14 days then it may be worth misting the roots in between waterings to keep the surface/arial roots moist. Otherwise they can dry as you are seeing especially with central heating in the winter, but at any time if your humidity is low. Generally when you buy them they have been grown in higher humidity than you can get at home and the surface roots dry out when the humidity is reduced at home. It actually happens to most of mine and I don't worry to much if there are plenty of roots going straight into the medium that will be unaffected.

The other thing I'm seeing in your pic, is possibly traces of fertiliser or other mineral deposits on the medium. Do you flush with plain water (preferably rain water, but just plain tap water if you can't get rain water). You should do this once every four waterings instead of using fertiliser. You should flush with a lot of water to try and wash out the fertiliser salts. If you have hard water that won't really help much for mineral deposits, but rain water can help more with that.

10-14 days is on the longer side for drying really and I usually consider trying to get it in a faster drying medium at that, although I tend to count 14 days as the absolute outside, I aim for 7 days if possible and I'm always a bit nervous of a plant taking 10 or more.

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[catweazle1962]

thankyou for your reply when we looked at the roots in the pot some of them are yellow and spongy like , but we are only watering according to the specs for the plant .

[RosieC]

Unfortunately no 'spec' can tell you what to do in your conditions, it's only ever a guideline. You mentioned using a stick in the pot to tell when to water, you should wait until it's dry when you pull it out, but that's where the surface ones can dry quicker and need misting.

Yellow roots are find, that's what they are like if they have not been exposed to light, but soft/hollow is not good that means it's rotting. They can also go hollow if kept too dry.

The picture is not clear, but it looks dry rather than wet. Is it hollow or mushy?

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[catweazle1962]

thankyou for your reply the root looks yellow and dry near the top wet near the end and hollow thanks

[Ray]

I'll add that you are - in my opinion - WAAAAAY overfertilizing the plant.

At a teaspoon per gallon, you're applying about 375 ppm N, which is about three times what I'd recommend. I feed my plants a solution about one-fifth as concentrated as you are - and am using pure water besides.

Orchids, in general, prefer solutions with fairly low dissolved solids contents. I don't know what the mineral level is in your water supply, but with that much fertilizer applied regularly, that could be damaging to the roots.

[nenella]

I agree that the roots look dry at the top. An idea would be to put a layer of sphag over the top and keep that moist by spraying it (be careful not to get any water in between the leaves).

What do the roots in the pot look like? and the plant itself? photos speak more than words...

[catweazle1962]

thankyou for your reply overfeeding ? we are only following the directions on the label , we know that the tap water is hard if thats got anything to do with the problem