Phal root rot - Orchid Board

jimkamal · #1 05-17-2014, 01:25 AM

Hey guys!

I live in honolulu and bought a phalaenopsis orchid from Home Depot. I've had phal before and was never great with them. My other orchids, vanda, grammatophyllum, cattleya does really well. Anyway, I purchased this orchid and it was in bloom with a few buds not fully opened. When I brought it home, I did some research and found out that phal likes to be in bark so I quickly repotted it because I didn't know how long it has been in the moss that it came with. It did not compromise the flowers and the flowers kept blooming for the next 8 weeks or so.

I repotted it in bark mix with charcoal and perlite that was made by "better gro" special orchid mix. I soaked the media in water overnight, took the orchid out from the pot, removed all the old moss, trim all dead roots and put them in the new mix. I've also read that because it is newly repotted, I should not water it too often. So I only watered it once every 5-6 days when the media is dry. However, one day, I noticed that the leaves started to limp, I panicked and removed the orchid and checked the roots. There were more root lost and it looked shriveled. I made the mistake by sprinkling cinnamon on the cut roots and realized later that by doing so, I am preventing water from getting absorbed into the root. I decided to chop up some sphagnum moss and mix it with the better gro orchid mix because I wanted to have it more moist. That didn't help either because the lower 2 leaves started turning yellow and it fell off. I am left with 2 leaves. I decided to unpot it again and pot it in a very small clear container that I made with lots of holes to ensure it is root bound. I used the same mix and added some styrofoam peanuts to lighten to mix.

I can see the roots inside, they are not yellow. More of less brown and really dark green at some parts. I removed all the cinnamon that was sprinkled and I soaked it in 10% physan solution, then in superthrive.

Now I only water once a week and have only 2 leaves left but the leaves don't look wrinkly. In fact it looks healthy. I don't know if the orchid will survive. Any advice? It gets bright light and it is sitting on top humidity tray fill with rocks to prevent the bottom from touching the water.

RandomGemini · #2 05-17-2014, 02:01 AM

You live in Hawaii. It's humid there, right?

Phals like to be a bit more wet than cattleyas. I water mine once every 7 to 10 days and my climate is pretty dry. Have you tried growing these mounted on cork or tree fern, outside? It might do well in your local conditions that way.

This Phal may be a lost cause. That's ok though. Home depot's employees tend to drench these plants daily and they don't tolerate that treatment well, so I doubt that this is your fault.

jimkamal · #3 05-17-2014, 02:08 AM

Yes it is humid but not as humid as Florida. Idk the leaves still look ok so I'm seeing if it will survive. It is in 3 inch container and I plan on misting the top of the media daily. When I got it, the roots were really green and healthy. I'm just not seeing any new growth of any sort.

RandomGemini · #4 05-17-2014, 02:45 AM

How long have you had it? I had one Phal that a friend purchased from Home Depot and gave to me to save. I had it for a month and it deteriorated rapidly no matter what I did. I think it had some kind of bacterial infection, or I fussed over it too much. One day I came home and found it had fallen out of the pot. The roots were just black. Totally gone.

It takes a while for a Phal to recover from crappy treatment. I have another one that I rescued from a hardware store that is finally growing a new leaf after 9 months. Took about six to start growing new roots after I repotted it into a Starbucks cup that I cut holes in. It's doing well now, but I doubt I will see a spike from it this year. There's a thread here called The Phal Abuse Ends Here. Search for it on the forum and read through the posts by King Of Orchid Growing and see if anything he has to say can help you out. I learned a lot from that thread!

jimkamal · #5 05-20-2014, 02:18 PM

So I looked at the post and learned a few things. I also think that I'm loving my orchid to death. Lol! So I'm trying a bag method over the orchid to keep the humidity high and use high quality sphagnum on top of the media too. I poke a few holes in the bag to create a little bit air circulation. So far I haven't seen any progress and I'm so tempted to remove it from the media and check the roots but I have to remind myself that phal needs time to recover. Taking her out from the pot too often will result in more stress. Good news is the 2 left over leaves are still perky and green. So I'm assuming that it is not dehydrated. I will let it be and will only be alarmed if the leaves start turning yellow. Any other advice would be very much appreciated

RandomGemini · #6 05-20-2014, 03:02 PM

Pretty typical of new Phal owners.

. Stick it in a spot and don't touch it for five days. Lather, rinse, repeat until it recovers.

You grow some orchids I haven't even tried yet, I got phals first and just got my first cattleya a couple of weeks ago. So I know you can do this, just follow the culture and you'll do fine.

They don't like to be pestered, which makes then perfect for me because I tend to forget about my phals for a week and then I'll check on them.

jimkamal · #7 05-20-2014, 10:35 PM

I know that we can't rush nature, but how long would think that I should expect anything from my sad phal? I just want to have hope that I'm doing something right. I don't care if it's going to take her a few years to bloom again as long as she is getting better

WhiteRabbit · #8 05-21-2014, 06:16 PM

Some have periods of not doing much ... I would expect new root growth and/or foliage during the next few months - it sounds like it's not in horrible shape.

jimkamal · #9 05-29-2014, 02:42 AM

Okay, I must admit that I looked at the clear plastic orchid pot that I made and saw that roots were black as can be and it felt like a paper sheath. I actually un potted the phal and observe the root. Yup, I was right. All the roots were dead. The leaves however, are not showing any signs of wrinkled or so, so I repotted it back in the medium. I was also looking at the bottom of the crown and noticed a slight bump! I'm thinking new roots are emerging and I'm pretty stoked! I'm going to keep the humidity high for the orchid and only to water it every 5-7 days or so as suggested and use Superthrive together with a little bit of liquid kelp when I water it to encourage root growth! I will update you guys in a few weeks.