Phal Root Pics wanted, good, kinda good, not bad, and bad

[kmccormic]

Hi Everyone!

I'm hoping that people could post pictures of various root healthiness stages on phaleonopsis. What looks ok to people? Bright green is obvious, but what about off-white or cream colored? What about "banged-up but still ok" roots, what do those look like? Anyone have "buggy" pictures of roots? What if the top portion of a root is brown-ish, or the "joints" in a root are brown, and rest is white or green, is that ok? What if the top of roots shrivel and the rest still looks green? What pictures can people show to know when to begin to respond to a problem?

A lot of pictures tend to show advanced stages of an issue, and I'm trying to figure out when to start getting concerned, in hopes that if I get another phal, I can react better and avoid killing it. Oncidiums are so much easier, they grow roots quickly, lots of them, and the bulbs tell you when to water!

Thanks in advance for your help. Have a nice day folks!

Cheers,
Kara

[RosieC]

I don't have any pics, but sometimes you can't tell from pics anyway. Colour is not so important as how firm they are.

Green is good and has access to light, and is wet.
Cream is good has no access to light, and could be wet or dry.
Silvery green is good, has access to light and is dry.

HOWEVER all of those can be stained to brown almost black by the medium and still be healthy.

What is more important than colour is whether they are firm or soft/mushy/hollow. If they are firm they are healthy, if they are soft/mushy/hollow they are rotting.

Very gently grip the roots between your thumb and forefinger. Don't squeeze too hard, but enough to tell if it's firm or not. That will tell you how healthy it is.

[RosieC]

Often arial roots will shrivel because it was more humid in the nursary, new ones may grown in your enviroment which will not shriviel in the same way.

If your roots look cream/green/silver green then you can be quite comfortable that they are fine. However if they are not that colour they could still be fine if they are firm.

[camille1585]

Agreed with Rosie, looks alone don't tell you everything. As long as they are firm, they're fine. Cracks brown/black color don't mean anything as long as they're firm.

As for the 'somewhat good' roots, as you say, you can have a case where an entire section of root is rotten/shriveled up, but then the tip is firm and healthy. Those roots are still good, though their lifespan is shorter. There's no reason to remove them, unless the plant has plenty of other very healthy roots.

You do well with Oncs, so if you are watering your Phals in a similar way, then that's why you have trouble with them. Despite their lack of bulbs, Phals do better if you err on the dry side with them. They are quite tolerant of underwatering, to a certain extent. I had the opposite issue: great with phals, but killed Oncs. I had to learn to water the Oncs more often....

[RosieC]

I agree with Camille on the roots that are dead at the top and alive at the bottom. I cut then off if there is a LOT of fully good roots, but I leave them on if there are not many fully good roots. I have one recently that ONLY had roots like that (luckily it's already growing more) but those are obviously still getting water into the plant, they just are likely to die back quicker than fully good roots.

I'm the same as Camille, I struggle with Oncs but do well with Phals. I underwater Oncs because Phals need to be on the drier side and that's what I'm used to.

[kmccormic]

Thank you!
I think I've been cutting off healthy roots with good tips then. What about when the tip is good but it's got a softer spot at the joints? I understand about the medium dyeing the root color, but I've usually rinsed thoroughly before unpotting to loosen the material, so I guess I've run into difficulty identifying "healthy spongy" vs "mushy."

I do think moss throws me, have people done ok using coconut husk with their phals? Maybe a small cube size?

Cheers,
Kara

Originally Posted by kmccormic

What about when the tip is good but it's got a softer spot at the joints?

Don't cut those. I usually just peel away the black mushy stuff and leave such roots on. Although most likely it will continue to rot, but while the inner root string is alive - it will help your plant still. And hopefully by the time it is all gone - the new roots will emerge to replace it.
Even if the whole root is soft and brown, I don't cut it off, but just peel the rotted velamen off and leave the strings on.
I find they also help to anchor the plant in the media when there is not much good roots left.
Just my opinion that works for me.

[Silje]

I'm the other way around. I can't seem to keep my onc roots healthy, but phals are fairly easy.

Don't have any pics easily available either, unfortunately, but with time I've learnt to always keep my phals in transparent plastic pots so that I can look at the roots regularly. Visual inspection and the weight of the pot will give you (with a bit of time and experience) a fairly good idea when the plant needs water. And that's really where the challenge or potential problem lies, isn't it? We tend to overwater them. At least I used to. I never ever had a phal dying on me because it was drying up. So I look at them, basically every day.

I also only keep my phals in other containers or pot holders while they're flowering. The rest of the year they stand in their transparent pots only. That way the roots close to the pot walls get a lot of light and remain nice green. I prefer that, I find. To me it is just easier to evaluate how the plant is doing and when it needs water when I know that they are supposed to be green and when they become greenish silver it's time to water them.

[kmccormic]

Can you tell me if healthy root tips but poor-looking tops should be left in place for most orchid species, or is that more phal specific? I wasn't aware the root strings could still be alive without the velamin. I always thought if there was a break along the root the whole thing was toast.

Regards,
Kara

[camille1585]

The velamin only serves to absorb water and give it to the real root, which is the stringy core. So a cracked, dented, crushed or beat up velamen is fine, it still acts like a sponge. In the case where a section of root is bad, with rotten/shriveled velamen, and the rest of the root is healthy, although the bad section cant absorb water anymore, the stringy core still transports water up to the plant from the healthy portion of root.

As for your question, both Rosie and I answered. They can be left on the plant. When repotting, we remove those roots only if the plant has a massive and very healthy root system otherwise.