Steps I took to rescue rootless orchids
Hi!
I'm fairly new at orchids, and when I read about planting in bark, I didn't realize the bark I could find in the store wasn't what was meant. Most of my orchids, needless to say, were completely devoid of unrotted roots this spring and rot was on some of the bases of the plants. I had to remove all the roots and clean up the rest with alcohol because that is what I had. I bought lava rock, washed really well, rinsed it in water from our dehumidifyer, and filled the cleaned clay pots most of the way with the rock. I then set the plants on top of the rock and, using chop sticks, pencils and twisties, secured the plants in the pots, setting them on top of the lava rock. I put the pots on their 'humidity trays' and a few times a day, I sprayed the rocks but not the plant. When the new roots had grown an inch or so, I gently set rocks around and over the roots and stopped the spraying. All but one oncidium recovered. I grow my phals, catts, vanda, maxillaria, epidendrum, oncidiums and dendrobiums all in lava rock now and used the bark to top the dirt of my other house plants. Looks really nice and they don't care. I guess you could use a rooting hormone, too. I use that for cuttings of other plants and it works really well. I hope this helps. I love orchids because they often do have second chances, unlike my other plants.
Leafmite
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