Phal possibly dying?

[gjposner]

I have had a Phal for a few years now, go it from someone else that had it for many years, I counted 7 new digits of leaves on the root system, or should I say, lackthereof. The root system is non-existent, and it has only gotten worse since I got it. I re-potted it, and it was growing fine, and then all of the sudden it just went dormant and started to die. Leaves dropping and such. Normally I give it water from a filter because of chlorine, but I was outside working on a project (melting tar out of a neon sign transformer for a tesla coil) and Hurricane Debby decided she wanted to say hello, and since I was out for a few hours, I went up and got it and put it in the rain. It was out for maybe 10 minutes max before I took it back in because it was literally pouring down rain (over 15inches in 3 days total). Ever since then the leaves that were left, one decent size (no where the length it used to have) and 2 small ones have been withering. I took it out of its pot (coconut pot, which is now astronomically large for it) to check roots, and nothing new, just more decay in the pot. I was able to snap off old stem material with surprising ease. I put a bit of fertilizer (first time in a few months) and mixed up the potting stuff, and re-planted it. A bit of water to make planting easier.. I am just not sure what to do. It had beautiful flowers when I got it.. also a ton of roaches in its medium (which was replaced after flipping a sh!t..) That was 2 years ago, and now it is just, I don't know, just not obviously happy. I has above ground roots which I covered, hopefully that will help, but I am guessing it is transitioning to an air orchid? I don't know.. Please help!

[jai_star]

Geez... it sounds like that Phal has been through a lot! Hard to tell how bad the situation is without a picture but from reading what you said I suspect that rot has gotten to the Phal and no roots = unhappy plant. Phals are very sensitive to rot and if there are insects in the medium that means things are rotting and sometime if it cannot be saved get a new one , and learn from this situation....

[gjposner]

No bugs, just went through the medium upon re-planting it, its free of bugs. It has not had roots for years, not sure why it is trying to kill itself now.. It does have plenty healthy above ground roots, should I bury those or no? Maybe 4-6 of them, about 2-4 inches in length each.

[jai_star]

A healthy plant should have roots. Those above ground roots are aerial roots and will most likely rot if buried. These roots maybe supporting the Phal however a pictures on the Phal will help

[gjposner]

so take it out of the medium again? I will have to do it in the morning as it is still drying off

[jai_star]

Yes take it out and photograph the Phal's roots, leaves and stem so we can give you better advice

[Lana]

What is the potting media for your Phal? How big is the pot? Pictures would really help; I bet you get great advice from lots of people once you post them.

[james mickelso]

Ok, once again. The roots you see growing above the media are roots. No different from the roots growing beneath the media. The first thing you need to do is dry the plant off. Leave it out of the media of any kind for a couple days. You can mist the leaves, especially the undersides of the leaves. But not the roots unless you can mist just the roots that are intact without rot like the ones growing above the media. Next you must stop the spread of root rot with powdered cinnamon. Cut back whatever is rotting and dab some cinnamon onto the cut ends to cauterize them. Next pot the phal in a loose well draining media. Like medium size bark. This orchid, if it can be saved and I'll bet it can, needs to be kept on the dry side until it starts to grow another leaf which will signify that it is making chlorophyll and is on the mend. Any further moisture to the critical root material will only exacerbate the situation. This is an air plant. An epiphyte. It doesn't need media. It needs moisture when it is dry. It needs a medium light level. And when it is healthy enough to photosynthesize it will need food. It requires nothing else. Hopefully it has enough energy in it's roots and the few remaining leaves to start growing again. But if so it will do it slowly.

[gjposner]

Okay here are the photos. The nice one was taken in 2010 when I was taking care of the roach issue. The orchid was in dirt, normal old dirt.
6/9/2010
These next photos were just taken, the orchid was washed to get better photos, hence why it is wet. The pot is a 13in square coconut pot. The roots you see that I broke off the larger (fatter) section was yesterday, the smaller section was weeks ago. They were long dead when I got the plant, just broke cause of age.
Photo 2
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Photo 10
The orchid sits in a west facing window in a room that can vary in temp, but does get into the mid to high 80's in the afternoon and in the low 70's at night.
Hope this helps!

[silken]

This plant can survive with some work, because I do see a good green root and one that was out in the air from the looks of it. The coconut pot was WAY, WAY too big. It should be potted in a pot with good air/drainage holes of a size that will only just fit the roots. I have never had even a very healthy large Phal that needed a 13 inch pot. I would suggest something like a 3 or 4 inch pot for this at most. Hard to tell size with a photo.

A good soaking in some seaweed water or KLN or SuperThrive water would help. Then pot in soaked medium bark or a course open mixture of bark, CHC, perlite, and maybe some moss. Whatever works for you as everyone has different conditions. For me, I like a mix of about half medium bark and half sphagnum moss that is quite loosely potted. Some people hate moss but I find if they are used to moss from being in the store, then this is an easier transition than to straight bark which dries pretty fast. Yours will also be used to wet conditions I think, or the roots wouldn't have rotted. So that's what I would suggest. Pot it in moist media and then let it dry out well before watering again. as James mentioned earlier, you can dust the ends of cut roots with cinnamon but not too much as it can dessicate healthy roots. I like a clear pot so I can see what is going on in there. green roots are wet and when they are silver, they are dry and its time to water. I also stick a kebab skewer down into the pot and leave it there. I pull it out to test and if it is dry or very close, then its time to water. It needs to dry out after watering but shouldn't be bone dry for days or anything. When they dry out, then the roots go seeking water and grow. In the meantime you can lightly mist the leaves to help it stay hydrated, but make sure none sits in the crown or crown rot can occur.

I will add, some Phals are more prone to growing air roots than other. It's likely genetics. But I also believe that if they don't like the potting media, they grow more air roots to try and survive out of the media. So your healthy air roots are possibly another indication that it didn't like what was below grade!