dormant or recuperating?

[hanzy08]

hello everyone i am new to this forum and i have a quick question. I bought a phal pink dancers a little over a month ago and i love it very much i thought the medium was pure medium bark chips but i noticed that it was still heavy after 4 days i watered it and i got curious. but before that, the bottom leaves started wilting and the buds were very slow in developing and led to bud blasts. that started my curiousity so i took it out of the pot and lo and behold.... a ball of moss in the center that was wet and just not good!!! i was pissed! cause the rest of the space was bark which is what you can see when i take it out of the ceramic pot. so immediately i trimmed off the dead roots, washed, cinnamon powder and all that and i replaced the medium to large bark chips. It has a spike coming out of a primary spike but it seems like it halted and now the bottom leaves looks like elephant skin but the two top leaves still look very healthy. do i just cut the spike off to give it energy on producing more roots?

[WhiteRabbit]

Are there many roots left?

[hanzy08]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

Are there many roots left?

just one healthy aerial root.

[Aki_James]

Well I would say with not much root left that would be common for the leaves to get like "elephant skin" they require quite a bit of moisture so this would be a result of the plant not having enough root to get the water it needs to keep its leaves plump...Not to mention if it is still trying to flower I would say it using all its energy to try and reproduce at the sacrifice of the leaves.

I would suggest removing the flower spike ( it sucks I know but I find the plant will usually not throw out any new roots if it in "flowering mode") and making a tent for it and setting it on a dish of gravel with a bit of water in it to raise the humidity up. I also would increase the temp a couple degrees while its in the tent.

I have a heirloom Cattleya from my grandmother that was near death because she decided to pot it in regular potting soil after 10 years and killed all the roots!!! I did this about 3 weeks ago and its just begun to throw out a ton of new roots and plump back up its leaves (the plant still looks ugly and shrivelled but I think it is going to make it) It was also in a dormant stage after flowering which makes it all the more challenging.

Good Luck

[hanzy08]

Originally Posted by Aki_James

Well I would say with not much root left that would be common for the leaves to get like "elephant skin" they require quite a bit of moisture so this would be a result of the plant not having enough root to get the water it needs to keep its leaves plump...Not to mention if it is still trying to flower I would say it using all its energy to try and reproduce at the sacrifice of the leaves.

I would suggest removing the flower spike ( it sucks I know but I find the plant will usually not throw out any new roots if it in "flowering mode") and making a tent for it and setting it on a dish of gravel with a bit of water in it to raise the humidity up. I also would increase the temp a couple degrees while its in the tent.

I have a heirloom Cattleya from my grandmother that was near death because she decided to pot it in regular potting soil after 10 years and killed all the roots!!! I did this about 3 weeks ago and its just begun to throw out a ton of new roots and plump back up its leaves (the plant still looks ugly and shrivelled but I think it is going to make it) It was also in a dormant stage after flowering which makes it all the more challenging.

Good Luck

oh wow.. yeah i guess im just gonna have to cut the spike and let it rest. it was a very healthy plant when i got it.. thank you!

[quiltergal]

With only one root left you will want to make sure it is in the smallest pot that root will fit in. Otherwise you risk it rotting too. Good luck!