Root rot after repotting phal

[supermoniQ]

I need some help on repotting my phals. I've repotted several after they finished blooming, trimmed the bad roots , etc and put in new bark medium. (i've changed from sphagnum moss to bark) Days after repotting I've noticed that the roots are turning black and drying out. I've presoaked the new bark medium in water and physan prior to potting. This phal has a new leaf growing.
What could I be doing wrong?
Thank you

I live in n cal/ tahoe area.

[james mickelso]

Roots come in many different flavors. The roots here that are soft when squeezed are gone. But that is just the velamen that you feel. The roots that are firm when squeezed are ok no matter what color they are. Just because the roots aren't nice and green/silver doesn't mean they aren't functioning. These roots look like they are drowning. When you repot a phal, let it sit without watering it for a day or two. When a phal is repotted there is minor damage done unless you are very very very careful. Roots get twisted, bent, pulled, and small minor cracks develop along the root. let the plant heal itself for a day or two. If the plant is in such bad condition that it can't go for a couple days without water, it isn't going to do any better watering the heck out of it anyway. This looks to have come out of sphagnum moss. These roots were already deteriorating long before this pic was taken. If it were mine I would put it in loose sphagnum moss and water it once a week and let it grow a few new roots. Or....bark. Same thing. Let it dry out and grow a few new roots. Or.....place it in a jar or glass with the roots hanging down into the jar with some crumpled newspaper or paper towel in the bottom. Wet the material and let it sit like that. Pull out the phal every few days and run water over the roots then put it back. It will come back.

[Orchidhound56]

Use K-L-N root hormone for growing beautiful healthy roots fast, I can't say enough about this stuff, I had some Phals with root rot and used this stuff and they came back to life.

[Nexogen]

The plant is shocked after repotting (don’t like new media) my advice; repot in sphagnum moss or throw at garbage(recovery of plant is too expensive, buy a new one).

[RosieC]

The roots taylored to growing in moss will have difficulty in bark. I've not had much success moving phals from moss to bark even though I really don't like growing them in moss. I've found leca watered really frequently does better for phals that have been in moss for me.

I would personally keep it in bark now you've made the move, but try something like seaweed extract to try and promote new roots to grow to replace these ones.

[The Mutant]

I agree with Rosie, keep it in the bark. Keep it a bit on the dry side and use some seaweed extract when watering. I think the most important thing, though, is to leave it and not to disturb it any more than necessary. I've made that mistake many times, and have lost some orchids because of it.

On the other hand, I've managed to get a couple of Phals with no viable root systems to grow new ones. Some of these I've kept in my usual bark/sphagnum/perlite mix, while two were put in sphagnum. What I did with the sphagnum ones, since I have a bad tendency to kill them, was to only spray the sphagnum, instead of watering the plant (I sprayed more at times, allowing water to drip through the entire pot). Thus I managed to not drench it. I've repotted these into my ordinary bark mix since, and they've had no problem adapting to it.

Good luck!

[Silje]

Phals generally do not object too much about re-potting, but I've also had a couple that has gone from old, decomposed bark to new bark that has responded with root rot and issues. However, in my experience it's a temporary thing, even though some roots die because of the re-potting the plants normally more than compensate for it by making new ones.

My advice would be to keep it in the bark, be careful with the watering. Let it dry out a bit, it will be fine, add a bit of seaweed extract or rooting hormone and give it some time. Like Mutant, I've also gone into frantic re-potting mode a few times and it hardly ever works out well. Orchids are survivors, but they can sometimes be slow in their recovery.

[james mickelso]

I have found that most of the root rot issues when repotting are due to watering issues. For some reason folks tend to over water phals when they have been repotted. Letting them dry out is what they need. I repot all of my phals in either bark or lava cinders and they all grow nicely afterward. I don't water them much. here are some rescues that were in pretty poor shape when I got them. One had the dreaded black plague and all were in moss. The one with black rot I left alone and didn't water it until it was dry as the proverbial bone. Then I watered it out in the yard being careful to not get any water on the leaves. No physan or anything else. It has now grown some leaves and is doing quite well along with new roots and yes Martha that is a flower spike growing. The others I potted from spag to bark or lava. If you are very careful when repotting from spag they do just fine in any other media. Just don't water them much until they get new roots and leaves. The smaller one in lava had nearly dead leaves with no turgidity at all. You can see how dry the leaves were. they don't plump up again. But they do photosynthesize and so leave them on. This one has a couple of new leaves and a keiki growing. I haven't yet been able to tell if the top growth is a leaf or spike. I think it is a leaf. We'll see. So in summary, repot into anything you like, be very careful with the roots, and don't water too much. Once a week unless it is really dry. Remember that in new bark media, you are watering the roots, not the media. The plant doesn't care if the bark is dry. Just it's roots.

[james mickelso]

Here are a couple more. The last pic is of Rootzilla. The flower spike is 38 inches tall and still growing. Not sure if this is white or pink. This is what Ray's seaweed concoction does to plants roots. The last couple pics are flower buds from BLC Magic of Mishima 'Volcano Queen'. I thought I only had one more that didn't rot off the buds but the other one of the two was hiding. This one didn't rot in the sheath.

[MT-Phal]

One of my phal's new roots (newly potted into NZ sphagnum) got to the pot wall, and instead of heading down turned up and is trying to escape. Is there any way to turn it back downwards?