Oncidium Sharry Baby - Green tips on air roots shrivelling.

[vMitchaaay]

Hi guys!

Thanks for clicking on my thread

This is my first post here and it's about my Oncidium Sharry Baby which seems to be doing well, however I noticed that some of the green tips on the roots outside of the media (air roots?) are shrivelling up and I can’t help but think something may be wrong (hopefully not ).

I have thought of the following questions which you may be able to help me with

1) Is the above normal?
2) Is my orchid trying to tell me something?
3) How do I prevent the above?

Please see below for details of my orchid.

Media: Fine bark mixed in with fine bits of perlite.

Watering routine: I water just before the media dries out by leaving the whole pot to soak in tap water for about 20mins.

Fertilizing: I tend to fertilize weakly, weekly with a purpose orchid fertilizer.

Light: The orchid is situated on an East facing windowsill.

Notes: The orchid currently has three active growths which the roots in question are coming from. The new roots inside the media seem okay they are white with bright green tips.

Images:
Please see attached

Many thanks guys feel free to ask me anything!

[jason45244]

That's what mine looks like, it's in spike right now about to bud. Everyday or every other day I spritz those top roots lightly. I just like to water my plants...don't go crazy though your plant is just fine.

[rbarata]

I've noticed the same in my Cambria...but I saw it as a normal thing.

[vMitchaaay]

Thanks for the responses :-) I guess if you guys have noticed the same thing and your plants are in good health it's nothing to worry about?

I just know that green tips on roots means they are actively growing so I assumed shrivelled tips ment something had stopped their growth.

I will start spraying the exposed roots and see what that does

[estación seca]

Most likely your humidity is lower than it formerly experienced, or your water has too many dissolved salts. I can't water orchids with my tap water; it has too many dissolved salts, which leads to root tip death and leaf tips browning. I collect rain water or used reverse osmosis water when I run out of rain.

Your municipal water supplier probably has water quality information available on their Web site.

[Ray]

Yep; dry environment

[vMitchaaay]

Cheers for the replies.

I believe you all are completely right, I've been watching some orchid care videos and have come to the following conclusion: I currently have no extra ventilation holes in my pot so the media dries out from top to bottom; I water my orchid when the moisture level is about an inch from the bottom, all of the media above is dry. Because of this the exposed roots on top aren’t getting enough moisture and have stopped growing.

There are couple of things to prevent this apparently, which are to use a layer of sphagnum moss on top of the media, spray the top when it becomes dry then water whole pot as normal, and or add extra ventilation holes to allow the pot to dry evenly.

I’m going to, for now, spray the roots (as you guys stated also) and then when I next repot add some extra ventilation holes, I may also change my media and mix in some moss.

So thanks for the comments and I hope this thread helps anyone with the same problem!

[jason45244]

Best of luck! I don't like to put a layer of moss on top, but it has just never really benefited me. I do know people have success with it though. I think you would be better off mixing it in the media.

[jason45244]

This is mine and how I water it. I make sure the sink is sterilized and give her a 10-15 minute soak. Those "aerial" roots get hydrated well. Let drain, then I spritz them every now and then. If possible a humidifier near your grow space couldn't hurt.


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