Orchid root health - withered black sections, rest green

[Archades]

So I am a bit paranoid about the health of my orchids after my one with keiki's had issues with the roots.

What causes part of the root to die, especially as the end bits are still green?

What causes the tops to go black?

Would too little water cause the partial root loss where the root material close to crown goes withered and/or black whilst the ends stay green?

[Archades]

Here are the pics for the other orchids I am worried about.

[Archades]

I noticed that the black and brown bits are not mushy, they're as hard as the green areas. Would they go brown/black with not enough water?

It has been very hot and dry for a few months and now the storm season is starting here. Far North Queensland, Australia wet tropics climate.

[Helene]

The roots are green in the tip, and often a bit more white on the older parts- they get green when wet, so wouldnt worry about that.
Some roots gets a bit brown/blackish- atleast mine do, think its because of the bark. (Have som only in water- they are white/silvery and green).

I am more concerned about the black stem- in the first post it seems like the stem are rotten, starting to rot. Usually because its been too moist.
The roots can dry out, but it looks more like mine did after standing in water over time.

Producing keiki can be hard on the mother plant, but your leaves look fine- it seems that the problem is with the roots/stem.

I would take the plant out of the pot and check all of its root, then its easier to tell what kind of problem you are having.

(I dont think the leaves would look so fine if it was too little water)

Anyway, kinda new myself- I'm sure more people with more experience will give you advice soon

[Helene]

Some pictures that might help

Healthy roots, but different colors and age:



Healthy keiki, dry

Healthy keiki, wet


Healthy stem, roots:


Not healthy roots

A little of both in this one…

Not healthy


When the root are wet, they get mushy, and they rot. This rot can easily spread to the stem, causing the plant to rot from the bottom and up. Before noticing the plant may already be gone. Notice the black spot at the stem. (this is from a mini, thats been in moss- and been to moist- atm wet because I had to soak it to get it out, not sure if it will survive, it might)

[malteseproverb]

I think your roots look fine OP. Sometimes a few roots don't look perfect but it doesn't always mean there is something culturally very wrong. Just old roots. You can either remove them to prevent rot or if they are on the surface/half viable like yours I usually just leave them alone. I am a bit lazy though.


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[kg5]

To add I have some roots that have weakened and look healthy but have a brown dry old withered look to 1 or 2 of the roots out of the 8 or 9 singular roots that can be seen.

But it looks like a natural happening.

Those images of mushy looking roots yuk......

---------- Post added at 12:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:30 AM ----------

Hi Archades good to see another person from QLD.

Your 1st post last image the plant looks wet to me and I would say it is a typical type of crown rot.

Some of the crown rot funguses have a very dry look and feel to them.

One of the dry crown rots is a diseases called sclitatinea and is more common in QLD than I would like to think.

It attacks any root system from an annual to a tree it spares none. An annual can succumb in a couple of hours and a tree a couple of years.

[Archades]

@kg5. Thanks. I took that 1st post, last image picture just after spraying with triforine fungicide. At the moment I have spread cinnamon powder on the crown and lower roots, the new growing roots from the leaves seem to look ok. I am going to try hold off trimming the crown as the spike is quite low on it and the keikis haven't developed roots yet, 1 has 5-10cm leaf + another leaf half it's size + another half the size again.

Did you mean Sclerotium rolfsii? I can't find any info on sclitatinea.

[kg5]

Got me! My spelling...... No it is a "tinea" ending.

There has been a lot of local used latin words that differ from one state or to another area + pronunciations.

Grovally Horticulture Collage Brisbane exposed this to me 25 years ago and they tried very hard to standardise messy areas. A lot of my hands on work place was in Toowoomba and it was full on but it was very inbred so to speak. Different names for tools etc.

Have forgotten so much but it comes back.

Your research is properly spot on.

[vjo]

Archades you should NEVER put cinnamon on the roots unless it is just on the very end of a cut. Cinnamon will just desicate the roots.
I personally think the plants look fine and the roots just look like old roots on the top but if they have green growing tips and are not mushy they should be fine
Try to rinse off the cinnamon....Jean