Repot Question on Recently Purchased Miltoniopsis Edie Brown 'Jackpot'

[notasaddove]

Hi Everyone!

This might be a long set-up to my question, but I wanted to make sure you had all pertinent information before your assessment.

Last week I made a purchase from Hausermann that included several orchids, among them was my Miltoniopsis Edie Brown 'Jackpot' [as well as 2 other Miltoniopsis orchids: Miltoniopsis (Ambre x Lynne Waihee) 'Cream Puff' and Miltoniopsis Rene Komoda]. I ordered them on Wednesday (7/1), they were shipped on Thursday (7/2) around 4 pm, and received them on Friday (7/3) at around 1pm. The weather in IL and WI (Madison is where I am located) was not too hot or too cold. They did not sit around at all as I was home when Fedex dropped them off, so I opened the box immediately (and carefully) to unpack the box and inspect my new orchids.

When I unpacked my Jackpot, his flowers looked a little bruised, but I know shipping is tough on those so it was not a big deal. Like the others, I put him in a pot of water to soak as his media (sphagnum moss only) was dry (I did the touch test too-it was also crinkly-sounding).

I placed my new Miltoniopsis orchids in the same location as my phals (a west-facing window that receives a ton of indirect light as it is shaded by three mature maple trees and the orchids are at least 7 feet from the actual window). I have used this location for my phals with no issue as wells as my lipstick plant (which has been in bloom for at least two months, so the light and humidity are good in this location).

Today I noticed that a few of the roots started to turn brown with black tips. I decided to risk it and repot it (the flowers were basically done) in order to check the roots in the bottom of the pot. It was not a pretty landscape of plump, snow-white roots. Most of the roots were dark, dark brown and squishy, especially those right underneath the pseudobulbs. There was a huge clump of wet and moldy sphagnum moss at the core of the roots. I had to cut away a good chunk of the roots to get rid of the dying bits.

The second image shows the 'decay' more clearly, but my question is: Is it something I should contact Hausermann about (if they shipped an orchid that was declining in health)? I am not too familiar with this species, but the other two Miltoniopsis orchids that I ordered are doing just fine in their current (Hausermann) media. So was this Jackpot a "Dud-pot"? Is it normal to have the core part of the bulbs that dark color when you repot them?