Mold and root rot after moving to S/H
 

I recently acquired a Phal Equestris, the medium it was in was pretty broken down so I thought I would try S/H with it. It has one new root coming out, so it should be fine o repot. The air roots were mostly fine, but roots in the old medium were all rotting. So I can cleaned them up, and repotted under S/H, with a ziploc bag over it.

After a few days, I noticed that a number of the roots are turning brown or black, some are shriveling up, and I can see some white mold on some roots as well. The new root spike is also dying off.

Is this normal? Should I clean up everything and try to repot again?

Why the bag?
I think you have too much humidity with your ziplock bag. With the poor circulation that must create, mold and fungus are inevitable.
A little NZSphag around the perimeter of the pot should suffice to reign in enough humidity for the transition.
Some roots will shrivel as they are not able to adapt to S/H while others will adapt and new ones will grow...it is a race that ultimately determines if the plant survives...
The roots that cannot adapt will be susceptible to mold, fungus, bacteria, and potentially insects :(
Diligence is needed.
Make sure your media was pre-soaked in a rooting solution!
Treat your water with rooting solution if you are not seeing new root growth.
Use broad spectrum anti-fungal(Cleary 3336) and bacterial(Phyton 27) solutions every few weeks.
Furthermore! Try a seedling mat! I have seen great strides with my phals converted to s/h when using this :biggrin:
Hopefully, Ray will chime in and add some things as his system is the one I am using and with which I am very pleased :blushing:

I put the bag on because I read on this board with that as the last step. I've taken it off now. The media was pre-washed and pre-soaked in a KLN solution.

Some roots still looks ok, but not sure if they will be for long. There seems to be enough things happening that makes me wonder if I should just take it back out, trim off the affected areas and start over...

The old roots will inevitably rot in the new environment because they are used to a drier mix. The new roots that grow into the LECA will be the roots that support your plant as the old ones die off, which is why it is so important to wait for new root growth prior to converting to S/H, which it sounds like you did.

I would give it a little longer and continue to water with a rooting solution to encourage more root growth. A seedling/heat mat is definitely a great idea. I have used one with each of my S/H conversions and I really feel that it helped to spur root growth.

With a few of my conversions, I noticed that the orchids struggled a little bit, but once the new roots grew into the LECA all was well.

Good luck!

Another thing to spur root growth is to water with luke warm water.

This has actually just reminded me that I intended to do that with the couple of S/H conversions I did last week and had forgotten.

Even more effective is the use of under-pot heating, as it is constant, not transient.

After following Ross' recommendation of using a seedling heat mat, I have found that it is very effective for getting new transplants established quickly, so now use it for all transplants, no matter how they are potted - s/h, or regular culture with bark or even EcoWeb.

Hi Ray,

I've had problems getting heating mats in the UK. Even my local hydroponics store does not stock them. That's why I started using the luke-warm water and had success.

I'm sure they must be available somewhere, so (not to hijack this thread) if anyone knows a Europe, or even better UK source I would love to know.

Rosie- you might look into getting one of the mats that they have to put in pet's beds. They have them in the states, I'm not sure about where you are. After comparing mine with a friend's more expensive seedling mat, they're about the same temperaute. (though I don't know what that is)
They also make under-gravel heat pads for aquariums. (some are advertised as a way to just raise the temperature several degrees) Or even heat tape that is often used in reptile tanks. (I know King of orchid growing can tell you about that)


Does anybody know the average temperature that the seedling mat gets to?

Interesting. I'll have to ask at the pet store see what they have.

The bag caused it to get too much moisture, and I believe that's where it went wrong. Those are really lovely Phals. You can repot, if you want, I would clean it up and do so.