saving a dying phal.
 

Ok, so I don'thave the best history with my orchids, but I always blamed my light source:). Anyway, My store bought phal- I know, I know- It had beautiful roots, big leaves and an incredible stem system. But after a month or so all the roots have nearly died off and the leaves are wrinkled. It did have a spider mite- don't think it does now as it has no more medium on it and it does't have any new webs. My question is this- should I cut off all of the spikes to stimulate root growth? They do seem to be doing the flowering of death so I am unsure:( I am putting it in new medium as well because the moss just stayed wet for too long- now in a mixture of coconut husk and schultz orchid mix. I am also south facing bow with lots of light.Please help!!

Hello & Welcome to the OB! You've come to the best place to get info!
If it was mine I would cut off the spike off. Sorry :( but it will give the plant more 'energy' and get it to use whatever it has left to grow new roots and leaves, which is the most important to get it to flower properly.
I would also soak the bare root plant with a rooting hormone eg: KLN & soak the new potting medium too and try & concentrate on getting it to grow new roots and leaves again. If these are happening and you have a healthy plant it will eventually reward you with a new flowerspike. Just for info I put up a double net curtain on my south facing window in summer as the light gets too strong (leaves will go very red/purple) Good luck & keep us posted.

I did exactly what Nenella said with my dying phal. I had bad luck with moss at my house as well. The orchid was fine in it's original bark mix but i wanted to try moss and now I know it was a bad idea. Phal lost two bottom leaves and was left with only one root. After I repotted phal in bark mix nothing happened for about a month. This maybe true for you as well, so don't give up too early. Eventually I saw some sign of growth. It now has 3 new root stubs and a baby leaf showing through.

Lots of light (assuming it's the right amount of light for a Phal.) is good for healthy plants. Because lots of light requires lots of water, which a strong healthy root system can provide.

If roots are damaged, you need to help your Phal. grow new roots, before anything else. You can help it by placing it in a shadier warmer place. Less light will require less water, and a warmer place (up to 35C / 95F) will help it with the "internal process" of repairing/re-growing damaged parts (roots in your case). And because of the higher temp, your Phal will also need a higher relative humidity (60-90%, the higher the better) to reduce the loss of water by evaporation.

Basically, you need a light version of the Sphag&Bag technique. See: Sphag-n-Bag .

By the way: the "Free Information" section on Ray's website is a golden mine.

I would pot in the tinyiest pot you can fit any remaining root into.

Then water with luke warm water and you may want to try some KLN. If you can put it on a seedling heat mat that may also help.

You need to aim for it to dry out quickly so that you water regularly (every 2-3 days seems ideal). But for that you need the tiny pot and a faster dyring medium than moss. I have found that struggling Phals with very little root apreciate this.

For most of my Phals I aim to have the medium dry in a week and water when it's just gone dry. For ones with struggling roots they seem to do better if it can dry quicker than that. Note that it needs to dry in the center as well, this is the reason for the tiny pot, it dries faster and will dry to the center even without roots. A large mass of medium without roots in it will dry very slowly.

Thanks everyone!
Sothe lots of light bit is good since I live in Canada and full light isn't as good as full light elsewhere at this time of year. So I cut off the spikes and bought some rooting hormone, but the prognosis is worse than expecte as mytwo year olds took some clippers to it- they said it was the cat, but he doesn't have opposable thumbs. Any way I think the bagging idea might be the best bet now since the leave will be dead shortly:( I'll keep you all updated!

So the sphag n bag seemed to be doing what it should but I went away for a couple of days and it now has mould on it.:( So washing it seems like the logical thing to do, but I was reading that some people do a bleach water dip too? What sort of mix would that be so I don't kill it?

A gentle rinse under warm water is usually enough. I would be careful with bleach. I have never used it for rinsing roots. I think 10 water to 1 bleach is the ratio for sterilizing cutting tools. It may be too strong for roots. You could mist with a bit of regular brown Listerine. This is safe and isn't usually diluted. I never have much luck with sphag and bag because of mold. Do you leave the bag slightly open as well?

Thanks! I stayed away from the bleach and just rinsed and reapplied the rooting hormone. I amstill thinking the rot is going to continue on the last two one inch roots as the have some blackspots showing up- or wherealready there-not sure:S I did go lift my spirits by going to an orchid show and buying a healthy new Cattleya Samba orchid :D It is so healthy looking! LOL!

it's not dead yet!!

When I have done sphag & bag, I open the bag every day for a few minutes to let air get in and have not had a mold issue.

Other times, I will use a take out container (if it's a small orchid) and use that instead of a bag and just have a small hole punched in it so it can still get humidity while not being closed off all together. I did not encounter mold issues when I did it this way. Good luck! :)

Thats a great idea! I will go and see if I have anything large enough.:)

Thanks for the idea. I might try that on two of my Lc. plugs that are in a bag right now.

Good luck.

I, too, have been nursing a dying phal (miniature). It has 2 good roots (finallY), the leaves look awful. I'm just keeping on keeping on. I wish you the best with yours.

OOOhhh..what kind of mini's do you have?
Well the roots on mine done have new growth but are somehow looking better...How are yours doing? Are mini's difficult?

So I bought a wardian case to nurse back unhappy plants. The roots are not wrinkled anymore but I am still not seeing any new growth. would some sort of warmth help that? The living roots still have some black spots on them but they are not rowing so I see this as a good sign:) How long can it take to see new growth?

I've used a seedling mat for bottom heat to encourage root growth along with diluted rooting hormone. How long it takes for root growth really depends on a lot of conditions (how healthy your orchid is, the growing conditions you are providing, etc).

I have a phal that had root rot from sphag not drying out. I repotted into a different medium back in January, only to find that the medium I used was starting to break down and had to repot into something else again in March. I thought all this repotting was going to really set it back, because it had to readjust to new medium each time. I checked on it every time I watered to see if there were any changes and saw none. There wasn't growth yet the leaves and roots seem to be the same. However just today when I watered it, I saw through the clear pot that the current roots branched off with new roots, and there is a tiny nub within the leaves that might be a new spike! Meanwhile I have a den that just decided to bounce back and give me new roots in a week. I think it really all depends! Hang in there! :)

Yes, hang in there! I nursed a near dead phal back and it took a good 3 months before I saw new roots. It now has new leaf growth and fairly decent roots to the point that I am sure it will survive (unless I do something bad to it). That's nearly 5 months later. I carefully misted the leaves every day while it had no roots. I am sure it helped. But you have to be VERY sure not to let it get into the crown of the leaves or it will cause crown rot.

So the prognosis is looking good. I put it into a warian case with some moss (not touching, just for moisture).Well neither moss nor orchid liked this and both started wilting. The Orchid leaves are starting to yellow and shrivel. Butthe roots habing died any further, but they haven't grown more either. There arealso no new leaf buds. I just can't figure this thing out!!

Also, thinking of letting it die and returning the case and buying a new orchid!LOL!

Pictures of unhappy plant:)
 

I agree, this phal doesn't look too bad. I would however keep the water out of the cown to prevent crown rot.
Joann

Thanks guys! but I promise that it does look worse than the pictures! dang good camera!LOL! There is substantial mould on a leaf that you can't see. I dostill have hope as the kings lost all leaves and survived because it has a good crown and this one still looks good. The water drops you see are there because I has just sprayed-it was gone a few minutes later:) I will baby that crown!LOL!:lol:

I see good roots on that plant so there is hope!

I agree with the others -- this doesn't look too bad! You should see the rescue I have hanging on my porch! :rofl:

Good luck with it, though!

So today I lost a leaf and cut one off. I am worried about the base though because the lead that fell off left its part of the base a bit yellowed and black. The reason for cutting off the next lead was that it was starting to do the same thing. I used sterile clipper and sidted it with cinnamon. I am also notsure but I think it may have spider mites as I saw a web- no mite though...? The crown is looking much les healthy than before but I have a very healthy looking root now. I am not sure what to make of all of this.. :S I would post a pick but my camera isn't workng at the moment but I would love some feedback!

I only have cats and no two year olds. One of my cats did cut off some of my Phal leaf. They can chew in a pretty straight line although there was little cat mouth shaped curve at the end of "cut". Glad to hear you got another orchid to ease the pain.

Keep growing it as you would if it were a healthy individual.

Let the leaves drop. If the petioles die off, it doesn't matter. What matters are the roots and the meristem which you wouldn't be able to see anyways.

If it dies even after your efforts to save it, so what, I'm sure you can get another one of the same kind. Remember, Phal hybrids are mass produced by the numbers. It doesn't matter if one dies, there are hundreds of clones to take it's place.

Thank you for the info on the spider mites! It was helpful!
I am only rally attached to this plant for two reasons: the first being that I like a challenge and that id I can keep it alive then I can feel like I can buy more without kiling them:) Second is that my Hubby thinks I kill all my plants-I don't-but if I can keep it alive he won't lecture me:) :lol:
You are definately right about just trying to treat it like others, I need to chill:blushing:

Ok, this is not a Phal, but it is a Vanda relative...

It has only 1 good root, and many of its leaves still intact.

I messed up with this one. There wasn't a whole lot of growing information on this particular species, nor is it widely grown (or known for that matter). I didn't realize just how humid this particular species needed to be grown (it needed to be grown very humid). Needless to say it got dehydrated and many of the roots died off (save 1) and all the leaves shriveled.

I couldn't keep up with watering this guy, so I put this plant in my snake tank where the humidity is very high (it's the same tank I put my Phal appendiculata in). I also tend to spray this tank down everyday, (the snakes are tropical snakes, so they love humidity as well), so that cuts down on the amount of orchids I have to go around watering individually.

Eventually within a few weeks, this plant grew a new root. I have high hopes of this plant making a full recovery in about 1 - 2 years (although, I do have to say that this species when grown correctly will apparently be very hardy).

I hope these pics will give you enough confidence to know that what you plan to do can be done.

I've already shown you pics of a Phal with no leaves recovering. Now I've shown you pics of a Vandaeceous plant beginning to recover from root heavy damage.

So, here are the pics: