Doritaenopsis on the brink!

[josterha]

Hi all,

I knew that my Doritaenopsis "Taida Salu" was in trouble for a while. The leaves were dark green, and started to shrivel. However it was blooming and producing beautiful flowers. I hoped that it was just an under-watering problem. Now the plant is ending its blooming cycle and I knew I needed to look under the surface to see what was going on. Bad news - that's what. It seems that the sphag was so tightly packed into the pot that it completely suffocated the plant. There are next to no live roots left.

I have decided to spag-n-bag. I cut off all of the desicated, rotted, and yellow roots with a sterilyzed sheers and am left with two or three grayish-green root nubs.

I asked my dad who lives in St. Louis and also grows orchids (but is admittedly not up on his technical know-how) what I should do. I told him about the root situation, and he said that the grayish-green roots are not healthy and are on their way out. Is this true? Most of my other phals have these same roots coming out of the top of the pot, and they seem healthy. At least, they are actively decaying. Someone please clarify.

Anyway, I sprinkled the root mess with cinnamon and placed it in a freezer bag with some wet sphag and taped the bag to the side of my growing table. I don't have high hopes for this plant, but I've read that spag-n-bag can work miracles.

Any comments are welcome.

Thanks,

John

[quiltergal]

John, I think gray-green roots are fine. If you spritz them with water do they turn bright green? If so they are fine. If not as long as they aren't squishy leave them on. If nothing else they may provide a branching off point for new roots. Now you wait. It can be a long process and sometimes it doesn't work but you've got nothing to lose at this point. Remember to open the bag and let it breath once a day.

[josterha]

Thanks Terri. I have the bag open slightly at the top. Does the bag need to be sealed completely?

[quiltergal]

If you seal it all the way up it will keep the humidity up in the bag. That will prevent the leaves from dessicating quite so bad while the plant thinks about growing roots. You do have to watch for mold though.

[Dorothy]

Be careful how you use cinnamon .. it should only be applied to open wounds and not sprinkled all over the roots .. I did sprinkled cinnamon over the roots of an orchid and it seemed to dehydrate them .. I'm not sure if that what caused my orchid to die but it didn't help it .. so again .. cinnamon applied only to open cuts or wounds.