new dendrobium roots dead help! - Orchid Board

kindrag23 · #1 08-23-2013, 08:53 PM

This is my new dendrobium I just got in today. It looms as if all its inner roots are dead... Obviously I will ha e to clip those off. There are some healthy roots on it juat not sure what is air root and what is lower soil roots....

kindrag23 · #2 08-23-2013, 09:06 PM

But what I also found since cutting the dead roots away was I have not one but 2.5 dendrobium and a keiki growing rather happily as well. So there is some good news with the dead roots after all

NYCorchidman · #3 08-23-2013, 09:27 PM

I hope you didn't cut away too much.
It was super dry so it would have been very easy to tell which ones are goner. Dead ones would very easily break off when dry.

If they don't break off with ease, then they are still alive no matter how bad they may look.

I think your den has quite a bit of good roots left though. Give it a good soak and pot it up. or pot it up and good soak.

Congrats!

kindrag23 · #4 08-23-2013, 09:40 PM

Thanks. The ones I was talking about were the main middle ones. They were uck...I lightly pinched on one and it came off and was black dead inside.. ewww that always grosses me out for some reason. Then the potting mix was molding..
So when I finished trimming the dead stuff off I hit it with bayer 3 in 1 to make sure to kill off and prevent any infection. Then sprinkled a tad bit of cinnamon on everything as I potted. Yeah they were pretty dehydrated so I have them soaking with some orchid food to make sure they are extra happy in new medium.
Its not my favorite but I am out of hydroton.... hopefully they will be okay until I can get me some more.

thanks I am very happy other wise. I ordered from kammotto (?) From Hawaii on ebay I was ref. To them from another member. This one was only 16? With 12 dollar shipping. I will be ordering from them very soon.

vjo · #5 08-23-2013, 10:48 PM

Yikes! What did you put cinnamon on? It should be put ONLY on the little cuts that you make, taking care not to get it on any other part of the roots. It will absolutely desicate the roots! I too thought the roots looked pretty good.... Jean

kindrag23 · #6 08-23-2013, 10:51 PM

Just lightly lightly on the cuts that I made. There were several dead strands right in the middle. And some that were rotten. Thatbi cut off but other then that there were some great new growths.

---------- Post added at 08:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:50 PM ----------

Sorry should have worded better.

Kevin_PR · #7 08-23-2013, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindrag23

Thanks. The ones I was talking about were the main middle ones. They were uck...I lightly pinched on one and it came off and was black dead inside.. ewww that always grosses me out for some reason. Then the potting mix was molding..
So when I finished trimming the dead stuff off I hit it with bayer 3 in 1 to make sure to kill off and prevent any infection. Then sprinkled a tad bit of cinnamon on everything as I potted. Yeah they were pretty dehydrated so I have them soaking with some orchid food to make sure they are extra happy in new medium.
Its not my favorite but I am out of hydroton.... hopefully they will be okay until I can get me some more.

thanks I am very happy other wise. I ordered from kammotto (?) From Hawaii on ebay I was ref. To them from another member. This one was only 16? With 12 dollar shipping. I will be ordering from them very soon.

When buying on Ebay I would say to definitely take shipping into account when buying. That is not a $16 plant it is $28 plant. I try to take advantage of shipping discount. Kawamoto is great, but shipping from Hawaii cost $.

I would agree with the other guys and say the roots looked good. They are bad if they are soft and squishy. Healthy roots are crisp and plump. The ones exposed to the air are usually more white/green than the ones pot bound. When potting most orchids remember they don't really like being overpotted. Some plants such as sobralia do better when overgrowing the pot(very potbound).

kindrag23 · #8 08-23-2013, 11:48 PM

Well the ones I cut were no longer even squishy or nothing they were just gone. Like severely dried and dead leaves of grass after a round up treatment days before. is what they looked like. There was plenty of good healthy roots in there I just had to cut some of the dead stuff out and put in a sturdier pot of a bout the same size. It kept tipping over in the one it came in. I left the healthy ones alone and just gently wrapped them against the side of the pot that I put them in.

Plus with almost all areas I have checked I have at least 10.00 shipping cost. And if I went somewhere where I could acquire orchids it would cost more in gas than in the shipping.

I have since let them soak and the roots are all now a very very healthy looking plump green again. This is my smaller one post soak.

This may be an odd question as well but when I was snipping and repotting the orchid had a very odd odor almost like that of old fish. What could cause that?

Carpe Diem · #9 08-24-2013, 12:14 AM

Maybe Kawamoto fertilizes with some kind of fish emulsion?

kindrag23 · #10 08-24-2013, 12:17 AM

Whew I dont know but whew it threw me slightly off when I first smelled it. I thought crud what on earth is that? Please tell me not some form of infection.