Too much humidity??!!

[SavanaKitty]

I have to mention this is my very first post

So I bought 3 phals. So far they seem to look good, in fact, some of them continue to bloom (the buds are exploding slowly, non of them have dropped after bringing the plants home).

However, I was getting concerned about the humidity balance. It is said you have to pay attention to the bottom of the pot in order to indicate the moist level of the roots. Guess what? It's been 15 days and half of the pot (starting from the bottom) still contains quite green roots.. I can actually see the humidity steam on the inner-walls of the plastic pot that never goes away. However after half a month I still decided to give them a short bath, because the upper roots were fully grey and I suppose getting really thirsty. I am not putting the plastic pots into any other decorative non-transparent pots yet, mainly because I prefer to observe the roots every time I look at it, I'm still learning..

The pots are on the windowsill facing East-North, RIGHT ABOVE THE HEATER, which gives quite a temperature (25*C or even more) and suppose to dry the air out. Outdoor humidity level is around 90% (not sure if this has an indication for indoor plants though)

Can this be a sign of lack of air circulation in the pot? What are your advices? p.s. the roots never go brown, but I'm scared they might..

Thank you for your answers in advance!!!

[dounoharm]

sounds like your orchids are in moss....the moss exposed to the air dries out quickly, while the interior moss stays wet for some time....I suggest removing the moss...for me, its too hard to judge the watering, and I find they do better in very large bark media....but that is for me, I don't know what your conditions are like....when you buy phals, frequently they are really packed hard in moss balls....this makes watering, air circulation, and root growth difficult....it works good for the big box stores because they don't get watered much in those circumstances.....but not so well at home....try changing media, and use the skewer method to judge when watering is needed....good luck, and welcome!

[Bud]

pictures can be a great help to give you tips and advice....

[MattWoelfsen]

I encourage you to continue to observe how your Phals roots are doing. If the roots are bright green, no water needed. If the roots are grayish-silver then it is time to water. Another benefit of your growing culture is by holding the pot, you can determine the weight differential between a just watered plant and a plant that needs water. Some folks recommend poking the center of the root ball with a wooden spike and seeing if the end of it is moist, sort of like sticking a tooth pick into a cake to see if its done. I don't like that method as you might inadvertently poke a healthy root.

I own several Phalaenopsis hybrids and a couple of species. The big plants from grocery stores or home improvement or garden centers are often in bark. The plants I have bought directly from Phalaenopsis vendors are always in sphagnum moss. So I keep them in the same media they came in when I have to repot.

[SavanaKitty]

UPDATE:

2 of them are doing well now that I have balanced the watering and heating. However, I've been observing one of my my flowers and I've noticed that it's not doing well (it was bought in different non-specialized store) and some of roots inside have even got this weird frost looking cover, which probably can be a sign of rot. There are 2 orchids in that pot, one of them is blooming, other is just trying to grow it's stem back (or not), I just ordered some supplies for re-potting, I'm going to give a shot and re-pot both orchids into 2 separate pots once my delivery is here.. I'll try to use a mixture of bulk, Aliflor and a little sphagnum moss in the bottom.
And the other ones so far are doing okay, so I'll just leave them alone for now

Please let me know if there's something else I should know. Thanks for your help

[Orchid Whisperer]

Originally Posted by SavanaKitty

UPDATE:

2 of them are doing well now that I have balanced the watering and heating. However, I've been observing one of my my flowers and I've noticed that it's not doing well (it was bought in different non-specialized store) and some of roots inside have even got this weird frost looking cover, which probably can be a sign of rot. There are 2 orchids in that pot, one of them is blooming, other is just trying to grow it's stem back (or not), I just ordered some supplies for re-potting, I'm going to give a shot and re-pot both orchids into 2 separate pots once my delivery is here.. I'll try to use a mixture of bulk, Aliflor and a little sphagnum moss in the bottom.
And the other ones so far are doing okay, so I'll just leave them alone for now

Please let me know if there's something else I should know. Thanks for your help

Hi and welcome to Orchidboard.

I am not sure what you mean by "bulk" (bark?). Bark with Alifor is fine. I would not put sphagnum in the bottom of the pot (it will cause rot). Either leave it out, or maybe use just a little on the top of the pot to help manage humidity around the roots. Your goal should be to have the bark-aliflor dry out most of the way, but not completely.

All of your pictures of the roots seem fine for now. When you re-pot, I would not cut or trim anything that is firm to the touch.

You mention that this plant is right above your heater. That may be too dry an environment; might explain the somewhat curled leaves (unless the plant came that way). If you have other house plants, keep your orchid grouped with your houseplants, that will improve the humidity.

Good luck!

[SavanaKitty]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

Hi and welcome to Orchidboard.

I am not sure what you mean by "bulk" (bark?). Bark with Alifor is fine. I would not put sphagnum in the bottom of the pot (it will cause rot). Either leave it out, or maybe use just a little on the top of the pot to help manage humidity around the roots. Your goal should be to have the bark-aliflor dry out most of the way, but not completely.

All of your pictures of the roots seem fine for now. When you re-pot, I would not cut or trim anything that is firm to the touch.

You mention that this plant is right above your heater. That may be too dry an environment; might explain the somewhat curled leaves (unless the plant came that way). If you have other house plants, keep your orchid grouped with your houseplants, that will improve the humidity.

Good luck!

About the leaves... In fact, that was my other concern. The other orchids that are standing besides have perfectly looking thick strong leaves, only this one came with those squishy, curled leaves.. Any idea?

[LadySoren]

Flowers fall and that is normal. Sometimes change in environment makes it happen too early. Ii thought that would be the end, but I currently have 2 completely different orchids sending out new buds at the end of the flower spike. I didn't cut the spike or anything to initiate this. One of them still has a flower or two left from the last blooms.
So you never know what will happen.

About the "frost" on the roots - pics would be helpful. There may be nothing wrong.

I made the mistakes of chopping off all roots I thought had ANYTHING wrong with them and I am now paying for the consequences. I can say though that I haven't killed an orchid yet and it has been 1 year since my first one. Maybe next year I'll kill one.
(Let's hope not tho)

---------- Post added at 08:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:17 AM ----------

PS I mention what I did to the roots bc if you haven't repotted yet, I would say that if you are in doubt about a root being good or not, leave it on.

[SavanaKitty]

I'm adding some pictures of how the whole thing looks like.

It's been 3 days after last watering, the pot stands above fully working heater. There's also a pic of the frost thingy and how the leaves look like

[Dendy83]

So what are they potted in? It looks a lot like soil.

If it is, unpot them right away and get them in moss, bark, or something that's more breathable than soil.