White fuzz appearing on sick phalaenopsis orchid roots?? Help!

[emmajs243]

Ok guys! I need some help! I was given this orchid for free to try and save her roots were in pretty bad condition and many had to be cut away. Now a few days after cutting her broken spike and dead roots I see this white fuzz covering he roots and where any cuts were made to dead roots. I have read about mealy bugs but don't think this is what those are and I have read about snow mold but it doesn't appear to resemble that either. Also, it isn't on the media, just the roots. What can I do? What do you think it is?

EVERYTHING that came in contact with the orchid was disinfected with a 1:10 bleach solution if it could be AND alcohol and physan 20. I wore gloves and would spray them the same between coming in contact with the orchid.
The orchid had its roots sprayed with hydrogen peroxide, leaves with an alcohol, water, tad of dish soap concoction and the roots lastly were sprayed with physan 20. The media was brand new but I washed and boiled it and then soaked it and right before putting the orchid in contact with it I sprayed the media with physan 20 too.

Where did I go wrong? I definitely do not want to infect other orchids the same way so I want to correct my mistake. Also, any ideas on if this orchid is still salvageable?

Lastly, in the first photo you can see this strange indention pattern on her base or stem. Any idea what this is? It is very odd and it is spreading I think.

[estación seca]

Hi Emma, relax. Orchids almost never need so much care. Phals are very sturdy plants that will get better without heroic measures. All you need to do is give them warm temperatures, and plenty of air and moisture at the roots. If you fuss over them you will almost always make things worse. There are many alarmist videos online giving bad advice.

I'm almost certain you cut off some healthy roots. It takes a long time to be able to tell live ones from dead ones. I leave all roots on unless they're black and slimy.

It is probable all the chemicals you used on the plant caused root damage. It is fine to disinfect tools, but you rarely need to put chemicals on Phals with root issues. Don't put hydrogen peroxide, nor bleach, on roots. Both are strong oxidizers, and can injure them. If you do use something on an orchid, use only one thing.

I would leave the plant in that pot. If your home ever gets under 78F this time of year I would set the pot on a heat mat. Phals heal best at warm temperatures.

There is a great thread here in the Beginners forum. From the left yellow menu select Forums, then Beginners. Look near the top for the stick thread The Phal abuse stops here.

[emmajs243]

Ok! First off, thank you for your reply! I really appreciate it! And I will say, it seems like one of the hardest things is leaving an orchid be which can also be one of the most beneficial things.

Now to clear one thing up, the only thing I applied to her roots was the hydrogen peroxide (just sprayed and left to sit) and then I sprayed them with a slightly weaker then recommended Physan 20 solution (I had read some had trouble with using the full 2 tsp to a gallon amount and didn't want to risk it). I definitely did not put any bleach on the roots though! I had seen some say to do that but I didn't like the idea, at all. I figure if I wouldn't put it on me if I was sick I am not using it on my plants, especially their roots!

Her "pot" or really just a cup, was however soaked in a bleach solution but then washed afterwards, sprayed with alcohol, rinsed well with water, and sprayed with Physan 20.

Before she was given to me she had already had a good hearted friend try to save her by unpotting her from her original sphagnum moss pot and then soaking the roots in a root stimulant all night and leaving them out to dry all day. One day however she left them out to dry for much longer then she ever had before (and on a heat pad) and when she came home all the roots appeared very dry and almost desiccated. They were not papery however just, dry. So that is when she called me!

I wanted to stick to a less extreme approach of just trimming the dead roots and broken flower spike back and leaving the roots on a bed of moist media in a warm and high humidity area. Since we are in Idaho, even with a humidifier running in each orchid room of my house, humidity is barely where it should be so I created a humidity tent for her to be placed in within my warmest room and then have left her, just replacing water in her cup and checking the humidity and temperature to ensure it doesn't get too cold/dry. I also try to keep a fan running during the day to help with airflow in each orchid room.

Now, I have recently purchased heat pads, my question with those is I feel like if you have the orchid on a humidity tray, the heat pad isn't going to do much right? Then again, it would probably be best to have her on a heat pad instead of the humidity tray right now. Especially if we are talking temps of 78 degrees and up! I have kept her at a 75 degree temp and I thought I was doing pretty good. I will however go ahead and position her on a heat mat and lose the humidity tray.

So would you not do anything for the white fuzzy mold looking stuff but just leave her be for now? It just seems to be spreading so fast. I really have tried to leave her alone as much as possible since cutting the roots just because I know how over handled she was before coming to me and she hasn't exactly been given any time to acclimate to one condition which I feel like is doing nothing but adding more stress.

[TamiP]

I always spray my root with hydrogen peroxide. I think perhaps the mold id being exacerbated by the humidity "tent". I did pretty much the same thing with a phal that lost all it's roots and quickly learned she didn't want a tent. I took it off and had her on a seedling mat and she's fine.

[emmajs243]

Hahahaha! Oh my goodness Tami! Thank you for the comfort on hydrogen peroxide. It definitely seemed to be a very common practice and I felt beyond safe about doing it from the amount of people who seem to use it!

It just made me burst out laughing the way you said, "quickly learned she didn't want a tent". I don't know why, I guess because we spend hours of research on how to save these beautiful plants, then go off finding these crazy items to build some contraption to save them in and in the end, every plant has its own definition of happy! Since spotting the mold I have stopped soaking my white towel that was creating so much humidity and just have her near the humidifier. Since, obviously the mold was just having the perfect growing environment in the humidity tent. I now do have her on a seedling heat mat so that should hopefully help and make her happy. (I guess its good I caught this because yesterday I was at the store trying to figure out how to make a mini greenhouse/terrarium large enough for a Phalaenopsis to fit in!)

Would you do anything else to assist in removing or treating the mold or just reduce humidity and keep an eye on it for awhile?

[TamiP]

To be perfectly honest I wold give it a quick spritz of hydrogen peroxide.

[emmajs243]

Ok! Excellent! That was kinda my thought process too. Either Hydrogen Peroxide or Physan 20. I started to become worried there for a minute! Thank you for your help!

I feel like she has been put through so much as good hearted as it may have been and she is still holding on so I hate to lose her now over some mold! I have her set on LECA with the intention of moving her over to s/h eventually once she has some good root growth happening and although her roots are only suppose to be on TOP of the LECA, in a few short days she has somehow managed to wiggle them down inside the LECA and they just keep on going down so I figure if those roots don't have mold and she wants to slowly pot herself into semi hydro then who am I to stop her!?

---------- Post added at 06:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:04 PM ----------

Originally Posted by estación seca

Hi Emma, relax. Orchids almost never need so much care. Phals are very sturdy plants that will get better without heroic measures. All you need to do is give them warm temperatures, and plenty of air and moisture at the roots. If you fuss over them you will almost always make things worse. There are many alarmist videos online giving bad advice.

I'm almost certain you cut off some healthy roots. It takes a long time to be able to tell live ones from dead ones. I leave all roots on unless they're black and slimy.

It is probable all the chemicals you used on the plant caused root damage. It is fine to disinfect tools, but you rarely need to put chemicals on Phals with root issues. Don't put hydrogen peroxide, nor bleach, on roots. Both are strong oxidizers, and can injure them. If you do use something on an orchid, use only one thing.

I would leave the plant in that pot. If your home ever gets under 78F this time of year I would set the pot on a heat mat. Phals heal best at warm temperatures.

There is a great thread here in the Beginners forum. From the left yellow menu select Forums, then Beginners. Look near the top for the stick thread The Phal abuse stops here.

Oh and have to thank you for the thread tip! Well and partially NOT thank you because although I have learned a lot, my entire Sunday afternoon was spent reading page after page of that thread! BUT definitely worthwhile education and I truly appreciate the tip!

[TamiP]

It's waaaayyyyy too easy to go down each rabbit hole thread isn't it? LOL I've spent HOURS!

[emmajs243]

lol! Orchid threads and youtube videos...get me every time! I swear somedays I spend more time researching orchids and shopping for orchid supplies then I do using the orchid supplies or caring for the orchids! I would like to know what in the world is it about this plant that hooks some people so intensely!

[aliceinwl]

If the roots are dead they’re going to mold. Even 3% hydrogen peroxide is going to cause some tissue damage. It doesn’t descriminate between root tissue and fungus. I think the last thing you want to do to a plant that’s struggling is to risk further damage to any remaining living root tissue.

Fungus on dead root tissue likely poses a negligible risk to the plant. As long as there’s dead material present it’s going to decay. The peroxide will temporarily cause death of the stuff on the surface, but the air is full of spores and bacteria so they’ll be back.