Any hope for a Miltonia with no roots?

[snail]

I bought a whole box full of orchids for next to nothing at a garden center yesterday. They are a sad looking bunch that had finished flowering and they wanted rid of, I couldn't resist rescuing them. They are not suffering from disease as such, mostly just over or under watering.

Most of them are phals which do well for me but I also got three Miltonia which I've never grown before. I got them out of their pots and started to cut off dead roots, I thought I could save some root but it turns out they were all rotted. What now?

The leaves still look reasonably healthy (only very slight general yellowing) and the core is not effected by the rot but I'm left with a plant without roots. Any suggestions what to do? Do I have a hope of getting new roots to grow? I planned to try semi-hydro (which I'm new to) on the plants but will go with whatever is best for a chance of recovery. I've got an empty aquarium I can turn into a hospital if it helps.

[camille1585]

I assume you mean Miltionopsis? Every Milt I have ever bought has been in the same state as yours, and I've found them impossible to save once the roots are gone. Onc alliance plants do not put out new roots on old bulbs, so the only hope of saving them, IMO, is to have some new growths on the plants that will then put out roots. Unfortunately none of mine ever had a new growth, and the plants would die before growing one.

Maybe it is possible to save these and some one can give you pointers, but I've never managed it. Perhaphs sticking them in a warm, humid ICU would help them cling on to life long enough start growing.

[Ray]

Every plant wants to survive, and will grow roots in an attempt to do so. Our challenge is to keep the plants alive until they do.

The biggest killer of rootless plants is desiccation, and as Camille said, keeping them in a saturated environment is the only recourse we have.

In extreme cases, I have immersed the entire plant in a rooting hormone solution for about an hour, hoping to get some penetration, then enclosed them.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Try putting the plant in a very humid environment and leave it there until it grows several roots that are at least 12.5 cm (5 in) long.

It will help tremendously if your plant has new shoots that are close to being full size. Generally speaking, new shoots are where many (not all) Onc relatives will grow new roots from.

[snail]

Thanks for all the answers. The label does say Miltonia not Miltoniopsis which I think are different from each other, but maybe some one else knows better.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

If the flowers are spider-like in appearance or star shaped, it is a true Miltonia, which has different cultural needs than a Miltoniopsis.

Miltoniopsis often goes by the common name of "Pansy Orchid" because their flowers resemble the flowers of plants in the genus Viola.

[snail]

There is not much left of the flowers, they definitely were not spider shaped. If it helps they seem to be shaped very much like this: http://www.sci.muni.cz/bot_zahr/foto...e/Miltonia.jpg
I am going by the label but it could well be wrong. If what I have is a Miltoniopsis I don't think I have a hope of making it happy because we get very hot summers which I believe they don't like.

[camille1585]

Then your plants are Miltionopsis if they look like that pic. I never understood why they are sold under the name of Miltonia!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Miltoniopsis and Miltonia were once lumped together into the same genus - Miltonia.

The retention of the old genus name may also have something to do with how much easier Miltonia is to remember than Miltoniopsis.

I have a Miltoniopsis and we have very hot summers here too. As long as it gets plenty of fresh air, and some breezes it should be fine.

[snail]

Thanks, that's very good to know about hot summers, I'll give it a go anyway. Do you think using the aquarium is a good idea? If I do does it need to have a fan?