Phal Schilleriana No Roots Remaining

[BKFSRS]

Was going to post this on the species page, but figured it was a general Phal question. I bought this Phal Schilleriana Pink Butterfly a couple of months ago and when it started to fail, I took it out of the sphag and it had almost no roots left. I've had it sitting in water, elevated up to the crown, because I read that it might help it to grow roots. So far, the few remaining roots have rotted and the leaves seem to be getting more limp. Is it too late to salvage this? I've had it in water for about 3 weeks and no new sign of roots or growth. I put KLN in the water and it's been sitting on a heat map. Thanks

[birdybrain]

I don't have a ton of experience, but thought I'd share what I've done. I had a rescue phal that I thought had rot on the base, so I cut off that portion of the base and this included all the roots. I treated the cut area with cinnamon. After a couple days to allow for healing the cut areas, I soaked the whole remaining plant in KLN, then kept the rootless phal in a bag with a separate small dish of water for humidity. I would soak the whole plant in water for a few minutes everyday, allow the crown to dry & return it to the bag. Before the roots started growing the remaining leaves wrinkled really badly, I removed the bottom 2 leaves and was left with 2 leaves. Now that roots are growing in I soak them in water for a few minutes each day and return the phal to the bag. This has all transpired over a couple months and I've even taken this little guy on two trips so I could keep up his care. I'm determined to save this guy!

Here's a pic of how he looked after I performed "surgery" on him.

[birdybrain]

Sorry, that post got sent off before I attached the other pics.
Here's the phal in his little humidity bag.

Here's my root growth to date & he's also started to grow another leaf.


I think soon I need to get him planted!
These plants are tough and with a little special care this one has pulled through even something as drastic as me chopping off his base and all his roots!

I like the variegated leaves on your phal. Good luck with rue growing the roots!

[BKFSRS]

Wow, it's amazing that new roots grew after you cut everything off. You have given me new hope. Maybe I just need to give it more time and switch to the humid bag method. Thanks

[Wild Orchid]

I did a few classic sphag-n-bag rescues as well. (You don't really need sphag, only some source of constant humidity in the bag as described.)

I'd say it depends on each Phal. My observation has been that if the base is strong and green, with some patience the roots will follow.
However, if the stem/base turns brown or black, this usually means rotting that eventually gets to the core and eventually kills the entire plant before any roots have a chance. Even with dipping the base into Physan or medical alcohol, the rot usually wins....

Good luck!
Lilia

[birdybrain]

rlilia, that's pretty much what I had read at the time and that's why I just cut away as much of the base as needed to get rid of the rot. Luckily I still had enough base left for the phal to recover since I caught it early while repotting just after getting the plant. Hopefully this rootless phal will recover more quickly since he's not having any major surgery performed!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

[Vrana]

Just wanted to wish you luck. Mine is in similar shape and I've taken some pretty drastic measures as a last resort... Here's to hoping both our plants recover

[butterfly_muse]

Originally Posted by Vrana

Just wanted to wish you luck. Mine is in similar shape and I've taken some pretty drastic measures as a last resort... Here's to hoping both our plants recover

How is the plant doing?

[BKFSRS]

Well, it's pretty much the same. It's still sitting in the KLN water and the one remaining root, that you can see in the original picture seems to still be hard. There is a slight bump on it and I'm hoping that it may be a new root sprouting. Can't really tell yet. The two leaves are still in tact although pretty limp. Maybe I should take it out of the water?

[butterfly_muse]

Originally Posted by BKFSRS

Well, it's pretty much the same. It's still sitting in the KLN water and the one remaining root, that you can see in the original picture seems to still be hard. There is a slight bump on it and I'm hoping that it may be a new root sprouting. Can't really tell yet. The two leaves are still in tact although pretty limp. Maybe I should take it out of the water?

I don't think the plant is supposed to be in water. I believe you are supposed to dunk the plant leaves and all in KLN (the leaves can drink) and then bag it with some humidity, or do as they suggested in my thread (it's about mold on the base of my plant :P) by putting it in a cup with some bark mix and sphag and keeping that moist.

Your leaves are probably limp and wrinkly from the one root not being sufficient to give water to the plant. I'd water it by dunking the whole thing, just make sure you don't let water sit in the crown and rot it.

I've got another phal that has ~3 roots total and I have to water it by dunking it once a week or so, lol.