Aerial Roots on Phalaenopsis

[matthewoc]

I have a few Phaalenopsis that bloomed last year, were repotted and maintained, and have bloomed again. All are healthy, show good root growth, grew several new leaves etc.

My question is that two of them have several substantial aerial roots that stick out horizontally, up to about 10-12 inches long. I don't spray the plants, just water them once a week or so.

Would it hurt the plant to cut these off? It is purely an esthetic question - e.g. cannot fit them easily on a shelf. I note that they are rarely present on plants for sale, so presume the growers either remove them, or have conditions that do not favor their formation?

Thanks

[tucker85]

Although it probably won't kill the plant to cut off the roots, I don't think I would do it. Most orchids like to have some of their roots out in the open air and they seem to be healthier when they have some strong aerial roots. Also the aerial roots are usually the newest of the plants roots and therefor the healthiest. I don't think it's a good idea to cut them off.

[Olivia]

I don't know if this will work, but you could try giving them a long soak to make the roots a little bit flexible and then very gently guide them in to a more convenient shape.

[zxyqu]

If you guide them into the media they are growing in, I'd say it's 50/50 they survive. Dont really know why, but that's just my experience. In my hands they just want to be aerial.
Ray also did a nifty experiment that suggested another reason for aerial roots. He found that they may serve to stabalize the plant, ie if he potted the phal up in a too big sized pot, the aerial roots reached out and into the media far away from the crown. You can find it here:
Dealing with Aerial Roots
But overall, the roots are there for a reason, and I wouldn't cut them.

[camille1585]

Same here, I wouldn't cut them off for all the reasons stated above.
zxyqu- The reason the aerials don't always survive in a pot is the same reason why roots die when put in S/H; they are not tailored to that environment.

[zxyqu]

Oh, sorry everyone if you misunderstood. I've tried on occasion to coax the green root tip only near the media, leaving the rest of the aerial outside as it had been. I'll normally put a single piece of bark somewhere near it to hold it near the potting media hoping it will start to grow down into the media. Sometimes it works, other times the green tip shrivels. Agreeing with Camille and others pushing the aerial into the media straight up will kill it. Sorry for the confusion

[Ray]

I got to thinking about the function of aerial roots, and noting that they often emanate from higher up in the plant's base, I came to the conclusion that they act as "guy wires" to stabilize the plant.

The leaves on a phal are big and heavy, and can act as "sails" in a windstorm, which puts a lot of mechanical stress on the plant's relatively small base. By putting out roots from higher up in the structure, and affixing them to the tree the plant grows on, it improves the stability significantly.

To test that, I started putting phals into pots as large as their leaf spans. (I can do that in S/H culture, because the moisture content of the LECA medium is very uniform; try that with an organic-based medium, and it would stay soppy in the middle of the root mass.)

The result? All of the aerial roots redirected themselves down into the medium near the pot perimeter, and they don't grow aerial roots any more.

[RosieC]

Really interesting Ray. I've never dared to use pots that big even with S/H but I had wondered if that's what would happen if you did.

I would leave them on like others have said, however if you do want to cut them off I would first check the health of the roots in the pot. If the roots in the pot are good an healthy then it's probably OK to remove some of the arial ones (I've seen ones that have been snipped by growers before and I actually wish they hadn't).

Sometimes an orchid whose potted roots are struggling will also put out a lot of arial roots (although they all do it) and if that's the case sometimes the arial ones are what saves it when you realise the potted ones are rotted. If I was going to remove the arial ones I would be 100% sure the potted roots are healthy first.

[silken]

I agree with the others about not removing them. Maybe they also take in more oxygen when the plant's other roots are too wet Who knows! but I kind of like that look. They look like orchids rather than some other kind of plant. It is sort of an exotic look to me.

You could do as suggested and soak them, then gently tie them down closer to the outside of the pot to take up less space.