pulcherrima - what are these purple roots?

[kmccormic]

I have a Pulcherrima which has purple roots and I'm not sure what's up with these roots - what are they?

Love this orchid, consistent bloomer with looooong spike that just keeps growing.

I've only had a year or two. It came in sphagnum which I'm not that familiar with. I repotted it into more sphag. I'd heard you should compact spag to keep it from being too wet, so I rolled it into balls and placed it around. Then I ended up having white fuzzy mold problems over and over so I guess I still don't get how to use spag. I'd potted it deep because it had some good roots at the bottom which I'd tried to keep. Maybe a bad idea it grows new roots to use as "pushers" to keep the plant stable? But as I was repotting it, showed me these mass of roots at the bottom - some purple - is it trying to send a runner to grow an offshoot or keiki?

[Orchid Whisperer]

I. Don't grow Phalaenopsis pulcherrima, but other Phals and other orchids sometimes get.the red/purple color in their roots. It is normal/healthy, probably the plant is genetically predisposed to get this coloration.

Has your plant started making massive numbers of keikis yet? If it does in the future, and you have extras to trade, let me know. I usually have a variety of plants to trade.

[Paphluvr]

I think that you'll find after repotting that the pink "roots" are actually new growths. Pulcherrima clumps much more than other Phals and I think these are new stolons or rhizomes (my apologies to all you botonists out there).

[kmccormic]

That's what I'm hoping. I wasn't able to find much out there on this plant or this habit. I did end up cutting it off and plunking it in it's own bit of spag. I couldn't keep that clump on the main plant, didn't have a pot deep enough and it tends to climb upwards swiftly.

[Selmo]

Phaleanopsis (Doritis) pulcherrima will grow into a clump. Our clump grew from the stem, not from the roots. I think that the red color on the roots, is just a sign of rapid root growth or good root growing conditions. I would look to the stem to see formation of new keikis. I would not worry about (woops I see you cut it off). I was hoping you would leave it on and see what happened to it. Well, we will see how it does on it’s own, in spag.


Ours is pulcherrima ‘Pretty Nice’. We grow it in large chunky bark, in more sun light than phals (can see shadows when hand placed over it), keep it moist (not soggy!!)in the summer and let dry some in winter between watering. This plant is tuff, in the wild it grows in the cracks in the rocks and gets very little rain during parts of the year. It can take hot, temps at or above 100F and down to 35F in the winter. Summer bloomer that can last, sometimes all year long, on long spikes that just keep blooming from the tip. It will become fairly large plant forming a even larger clump. In the photo there are three 8” pots of them. Every couple of years, we repot and divide them, this is a really tuff and hardy, minimal maintenance plant that kind of grows on it own. Now that I say that, someone will say I can’t grow this or this is hard keep alive. The only thing that we have found that harms them is keeping them to wet, soggy during the colder months. This will kill the roots. Hope this helps

[Paphluvr]

I do agree with Selmo that this should be grown drier than other Phals and can also take more light. Here's a picture of mine that I've had for 30+ yrs.

[Paphluvr]

This is why I think the pink "roots" are actually new growths. This is a small division that I had to take off of one of my other plants. I know it is potted too high in the medium but I had to do that in order to not bury the new growth. It had come from very low down on the stem (as your's are, well below the medium) and made repotting difficult.

[kmccormic]

Oh I hope it's a new division! It would be my first instance of any orchid dividing naturally. I had no choice about trimming it off though, the main plant was already developing roots about an inch taller than my tallest pot. It's such a climber!

---------- Post added at 09:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:18 PM ----------

So everyone recommends bark... Is that why anytime the new "pusher" roots that develop with each successive layer tend to shrivel up and die? The lower roots absolutely love the spag, and I would've thought the new root growth would adapt to whatever grown in.

[kmccormic]

The answer is that Paphluvr was correct! It is putting forth a new growth. It's not as purple at the bottom but there's a small green shoot coming from it.