Phalenopsis - dying roots with green, growing tips, multiple keikis keikis

[Archades]

I have a Phal orchid that I had put keiki paste on a few months ago. Repotted it into a clear container with quincan rock with a small amount of an "orchid bark mix" from Bunnings and a few bits of perlite. Tried to make it a loose and high airflow mix to prevent rotting in the first place...

My climate is the wet tropics, usually in a high rainfall area of 4-5M per year. Far North Queensland, Innisfail area (cyclone magnet). The recent year has been a hell of a lot drier though. Recent weather was very hot in the last fortnight, 35+ celcius with high humidity. It is a bit cooler this week but still fairly hot.

All of my orchids are on the patio, never get direct sunlight but there is a lot of indirect light from light/near white paver/tiled area. I was watering them every 4-7 days, I usually wait until I don't see any humidity on the plastic container and the rocks look dry. The roots on all of them are usually green or silvery green, they get quite a lot of airflow, most of the leaves are thick, plump, firm, n lime-green/what I usually see on orchids. For the last week n a half whilst the extreme heat was around I was watering them about every 2-3 days.

About a month ago I noticed a keiki growing finally, or at least I believe it is a keiki. Today I noticed 2 more growing but I saw the crown and roots and they were not happy! The roots were nice n green every time I've looked at them so I am pretty shocked by this. Could too much hormone cause this kind of damage or is it too much water? I've sprayed it with Triforine as soon as I saw this.

The black starts around the crown and goes to about 1/3rd of the root, the rest of the root looks perfectly healthy and is putting on multiple offshoots and growing nicely so I have no idea what is going on. The lil mini string inside the roots was green under the black/rotted outer bit and there was one part of the string that was black/yellow. I can see at least 1 green root still attached and I am hoping that stays green! The leaves still look healthy to me?

What can I do to save this orchid. I've read Seasol has auxins to promote root growth, should I apply that now? I have wiped off as much keiki growth paste as I can as I've read that stuff limits root growth.

I've also read there is a keiki paste specifically for root development, these keiki's have no roots so would that be worth getting?

[WhiteRabbit]

Might the keikis have gotten wet inside while developing?

The root in the last pic - I'm not sure if I think that looks rotted or that maybe that bit of root was severely dry ? It would seem that the velamen rotted or died, but the root inside is alive, as the rest of the root looks good. Has the bad looking area gotten bigger?

[Archades]

They should have been fairly dry in a partially humid area, they were on the patio outside under a roof with a large amount of airflow. Last night was the first time I noticed anything wrong + noticed 2 extra keikis, every other time I've seen it was growing strong.

I will keep a check on it to see if it gets worse, hopefully it just got too dry. The rocks, etc do dry out so I am still working out a fine balance between humid and too wet or dry.

[estación seca]

The center can be wet even though the outside looks dry. Read about

the skewer method.

[Archades]

Looks like a new root?

[Kingianum]

Hi, the leaves are still healthy though the newer leaves are smaller than the older leaves. I'd just use normal orchid liquid food. With a strict fertilizing/watering schedule, it will survive. All the best!

[Ray]

It looks to me like you've completely rotted the base of the plant, and had better "baby it" until that root grows.

I doubt the hormones had anything to do with it.

[estación seca]

High humidity predisposes to rotting when air flow is not good, or plants are injured by bugs or scratches. Even with greenhouses, most of us in the US don't see more than 60%-70%. Much higher than this, various rots become more common.

I might add one photo shows a plant with two larger old leaves, and two small new leaves. This is often caused by high light. Reflected light in the tropics can be very bright. I live at 33 degrees north, and I can bloom Cattleyas in bright shade with only a couple hours of morning sun. However, bright light also makes many plants more resistant to rot.