HW store rescue - Need help with this Paph

[Darth Schrute]

Hello Everyone! This is my first post here so be gentle with me.

Last year I "discovered" orchids by falling in love with a bizarre but beautiful spider-ish variety at a local mega-hardware store. It had this single massive black (purplish) flower on top and this amazingly long, think stem that was covered with very tiny black "hairs" that gave it the appearance of a spider's leg. I had no idea how to take care of an orchid when I bought it and now I think I might be paying the price... The flower eventually rotted and fell of and I didn't know what to do so I just cut off the stem and assumed a new one would eventually grow back since the leaves still seemed healthy.

Now a couple things are happening to it. I see signs of rot at the base of the original stem that I cut off several months ago. I also see a new orchid that started growing on the back of the original. The new orchid is showing signs of rot on one of it's new leaves so I assumed something nasty was going on in the roots. So I delicately removed the plant from a mass of disgusting looking moss (which was covered by pretty rocks) and found a bunch of brown half-dead roots with one single semi-healthy looking white root.

I assume the white root was from the new plant and a good sign but I don't know what to do about the rest. I followed some advice to remove the dead and squishy roots and then I re-potted it in bark instead of moss but the leaves on the new plant seem to be getting worse. Do I need to "sprag-n-bag" my little friend? Should I remove the original plant so that the new one can utilize all the available good roots? Will spraging and bagging cause the new plant to not bloom this year? It looks like it's about ready to start making the stem that holds the flower (sorry for the amateur verbiage).

I've attached some rather poor pictures of my dilemma. Would some kind soul tell me what I should do? If spragging and bagging is the answer, can you point me to a "how-to" that will show me how? Many thanks!!!

~Alex

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

You have a Paphiopedilum. Without a photo of the flower and no name on a tag, no one is able to provide any further ID. However, yours is most likely a hybrid.

Most Paphiopedilums are semi-terrestrials, some are lithophytic, and some are epiphytical.

Paphs originate from tropical and subtropical Asia.

This is about as much as I'm comfortable saying in terms of advice for Paphs. They are currently not my area of expertise.

[fotofashion]

Dig around and ask in the Paph. forum. You'll find plenty of advice there.
Beverly A.

[Zoi2]

Hello and welcome to the OB.
I am not an expert on paphs and only have 3 but this link might point you in the right direction until someone with more experience wades in. Paphiopedilum Orchids - Paphiopedillum Orchid Care
Joann

[PinkCloud]

Hello Darth Schrute! I don't have any Paphiopedilums myself so I can't advice you further. But I'm sure you'll find a lot of help from here. I just wanted to say to OB!

[Olivia]

Hi Alex,

I'm relatively new to paphs myself (only have one) but it seems from my general research you want to keep the old growth and new growths together on such a small plant. Of course that may all change with the rotting you've described.

I would definitely post this in the paph forum like Beverly and Joann suggested. I found they were very helpful and quick to respond to my paph specific questions there.

Good luck!
Cypripedium Alliance - Paphiopedilum - Orchid Board - Most Complete Orchid Forum on the web !

[RosieC]

Hi Alex and welcome to Orchid Board

To save you starting another thread in the Paph area I've moved your post for you.

From the mottled leaves it looks like a Maudiae type of Paph, but it's probably still impossible to get an exact ID. that should be enough to help when you're reading care tips though.

Paphs have brown roots anyway (brown and hairy on healthy roots) but if they were also squishy then you did the right thing to remove them. The white root tip in your photo is an actively growing root, it will eventually turn brown and hairy too.

Paphs are sympodial which means that unlike a monopodial orchid (like a Phalaenopsis for example) their normal growing patten is multiple attached growths. With Paphs we tend to call them 'fans'. Each fan will die back after flowering (sometimes it can take a year or two for them to die back, sometimes it's quite quick, depending on the type of Paph). New fans grow to take their place. Generally speaking I would leave the old fans as they can help generate energy for the plant as a whole, just let them die back naturally.

[RosieC]

I can't see rot as such in your pictures. I would say treat any suspect areas with cinnamon (the spice) but NOT on the roots, just on the plant (one of the ways cinnamon helps is by drying a wound, that's not so good on roots which it can stop from absorbing water).

Then pot it up in the tiniest pot you can get the roots into. I have a couple of tiny paphs like this in 6cm pots (just over 2"). Use a good quality orchid bark to pot them in (www.repotme.com is one source). In small pots like that they may need watering a couple of times a week (I aim to do mine every 3-4 days) but the small pot will save the roots from staying soggy too long.

This treatment saved mine (whose roots had rotted in soggy bark) and after about 8 months I'm now about to move them up to bigger pots as lots of lovely roots have grown and the new fans have also grown well.

I would not use Sphag-n-bag on this because of the nice root you have. Sphag-n-bag is good to get roots going on completely rootless orchids, but in my experience if you have any roots then it's best to just pot them up in tiny pots (old food containers of the right size with holes made in them will do if you can't get tiny pots).

Good luck

[RJSquirrel]

welcome !!!

that plants fine.

put it back in moss if you have low humidity under 50%. the bark dries out too fast and trying to compensate for that you might be heavy handed with the water. They like to stay moist and sometimes bark just doesn't do it alone.

put it in a pot that is too small for it..that one is good for about a 2" pot indeed.The roots love contact with each other.

the dying bloomed out plant its okey to cut it out. most times you can just pull em loose and they come right apart leaving the active roots on the new growths.

65-75 temps daytime
60-70 temps at night

you need the spread of temps to induce blooms on the new growths.

and everything else Rosie said she an orchidbot

[Darth Schrute]

Thanks for the warm welcome and all the excellent advice!

I'm such a noob that I didn't even know this was a Paph... It was in a discount area of the hardware store and didn't have a tag and one of it's leaves was pretty damaged but it was the most badass looking orchid I've ever seen so I just had to get it without knowing a thing about it. I really wish I'd taken a picture of it before the flower died... But thanks to all your advice I'm now looking forward to snapping a shot of the fan's flower once it eventually graces me with it's presence.

After all your help and after researching several threads in this particular subforum I figured out that I had a couple different issues:


Symptom 1: White powdery infection where the stem of the original plant was cut off (crown rot?) and on the newest leaf of the fan.

Root Cause: Use of non-sterilized tools and/or an organic "worm-poop" spray fertilizer that infected the vulnerable areas of the plant (where it was cut and on the new leaf).

Corrective Action: Use sterile tools when trimming and stop using the spray fertilizer (or at least be very careful where I apply it). Gently swab the white substance off the infected areas and apply Cinnamon to prevent reinfection.


Symptom 2: Soggy, squishy roots.

Root cause: I never repotted the plant after it's initial purchase several months ago. It was potted in Sphagnum and I was over watering it.

Corrective Action: Removed the rotten roots, repotted in fine Orchid bark (Fir) in a small pot and will watch it carefully to make sure the bark is always moist but not wet.

Hopefully my next post about this Paph will be a picture showing how healthy it is.

Thanks!