Help... Really bad root rot!!
 

Hello. I had recently posted a question about my Phal, whether it was growing a new root or spike. It turned out to be a root growing upwards and in one of the replies, somebody made a comment that maybe the root was trying to get out of the very wet medium. So I repotted, and they turned out to be right! There was a LOT of damage and root rot :_( one of the leaves even stated yellowing! I trimmed away all the damage I could and my poor Phal was left with 2 good roots. There is a tiny new leaf growing too, does that mean there's hope? I am afraid that the rot might have got to the stem of the orchid.
The clear plastic pot i used has an inner net core that promotes air drying and photosynthesis. I packed the medium very lightly and added some packing penuts that I had ordered from rePotme.com after reading some of their orchid care pointers.
Basically, I'm just waiting to see what happens next. Is there anything else I can do for my plant? Please help, I don't want to lose my beautiful Phallie.

You have done the same as I do. The one thing you need to do now is to keep the plant in a humid environment to minimize dehydration while the plant grows new roots. I have rescued store bought phals that had essentially no roots but I have a grow room that I keep at 60%-80% humidity with constant air circulation.

It will survive! give some TLC and consider some seaweed extract or SuperThrive to promote root growth. It may take a while, but orchids want to survive. So patience is now key.
:goodluck:

Thank you so much for your help!
where can i get seaweed extract or SuperThrive? And how often do i apply?

After trimming back all the rot, I've used cinamon as a fungicide. I almost completely killed one after overwatering (one of my first orchids), trimmed it back, used cinamon, let it dry out, then after a while a keiki emerged. It's grown enough roots on it's own I separated it from the old dried up part and threw the old "stump" out.

I had some similar trouble with my two Phals. I'm just watching them more carefully and watering when the few roots that are left turn white. I have mine up on humidity trays (some clear plastic trays I got at a garden supply store with some stones and water) and so far so good. Good luck to you :)

Thank you for your support. :) I also used ground cinnamon and applied wherever I trimmed. I guess all I have left to do is wait.
Do you think a swamp cooler would be a good idea to keep a good air circulation whilst providing a humid environment for my Phal? It's pretty warm here anyway...
So there definitely is hope. I'm glad. Thank you so much everybody for your comments :D

I bought SuperThrive from www.repotme,com. I also hear it is avilable from hydroponic stores and Amazon. Also try Orchid Growing Supplies Semi-hydroponics Hydroponics Orchid Books PrimeAgra. Ray always has the best stuff.

I bought my Superthrive from Walmart of all places. It was in the gardening supplies section. If you do purchase this product be sure to refrigerate it after opening so that the contents do not break down as quickly.

Thanks I didn't know that!

Thank you so much. I'll do that and keep my fingers crossed. :)

I have found promoting humidity and providing warmth to the roots really helps out. I've had my fair share of battles with root rot.
I'm currently fighting to keep my leopard prince alive that's developed a case of it. I've repotted it out of season but it'll die if I do nothing.

Like Marisol, I also use ground cinnamon whenever I trim any roots and it seems to help out. I like using natural stuff and I'm not a big fan of chemical pesticides.

Oh and air circulation and providing air to the roots is also really good when coupled with humidity. Gotta love those "oxygen core" pots from repotme.com

Root & Crown Rot in Phals
 

If the cinnamon is not stopping the rot, you may want to try soaking the phal in hydrogen peroxide. Make sure the peroxide gets into the crown as well. I let mine soak for several minutes and then I let the phal dry overnight on its side before repotting. If the rot is very bad, you may have to use the hydrogen peroxide for several days in a row.

To prevent the rot from returning, you need to make sure your potting media is drying quickly enough. I do not water my phals until the potting media is almost dry. Since phals are predisposed to crown rot, I still leave wooden skewers in the pot which I press to my cheek to see how wet the media is before I water. It always surprises me how some phals remain wetter than others even though they are grown in the same size pot and same media. That's why I always check first.

Also, if I suspect I've allowed water to get into the crown, I place the phal on it's side until the next day so I'm sure the water was able to drain out. Many people grow their phals on their sides to prevent crown rot and I've found this helpful as well.

If you continue to have problems with rot, you can try watering less often, growing on their sides, adding an additional fan and/or using a different type of potting material. I had many phals die from rot when I first started growing them. What I found worked best for my conditions was to pot the phals in a mixture of New Zealand sphag and bark. You need to figure out what works best for the conditions you are growing in. I believe that's where the ability to successfully grow orchids resides. Good luck!

You do know you replied to a 2012 thread, right?

Oooops
 

Half asleep when I wrote response. Probably a few more out there. Sorry.

Done so myself...

If cinnamon is being applied to roots, "root rot" isn't going to kill the roots, desiccation will. Yeah. I'm almost in 2019, at 6 am, replying to a 2012 post. I need a life. Oh, I got my fertilizers, thank you Ray!!

Cinnamon is fine to use on cut leaves, but NEVER on roots. It may kill roots.

Oh wait. Nevermind, I too just realized how old this thread is. Coffee has not kicked in yet.

Format C:\ /L >> nul
| Y
OK, where's my coffee?

Ok . . . . ?
Sorry, not getting it.

I get the part about no coffee yet, though! :)

Open a DOS command line.

Format C:\ /L
is the command to erase and reset (Format) everything on your main hard drive and overwrite it (/L(ong)] with digital zeros so it's completely gone. If you do this, undelete programs won't be able to recover the data. Most of the time you would never, never, never want to do this.

When you try to format a disk the operating system prints out a message asking whether you really want to do this, and reminding you everything on the disk will be wiped. The command >> nul can be placed after any other command that normally generates a text response from the computer. It tells the operating system to send its normal warning message to the nul location, which means not to print it and to discard it, so the operator won't see it.

| Y pipes (sends) the answer Y(es) to the question the operating system always asks when you issue the format command - are you sure you want to destroy everything on your main drive?

So
Format C:\ /L >> nul
| Y

tells the operating system to erase irrevocably everything on the main hard disk, don't bother me with warning messages, and do it even if I haven't looked at the warning message.

This has been known to happen when people haven't had their morning coffee.

Enough hooky. Back to bringing in plants. Frost is possible tonight. I've noticed I move much faster with brandy in my coffee, but I also get distracted by Orchid Board.

Estación seca: That is like a foreign language to me. I was 20 in the mid-90s, when everyone seemed to start really using computers, and for some reason, it just didn't interest me at all. Now, I'm 42, and I'm (re-)starting to finish my engineering degree (near-fatal auto accident on my 86-mile each direction commute to school has had me sidelined since then, but I'm not going to go back to the same school I was at before, because as my classes got more difficult, that commute really was making life difficult. The drive between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is too much to do every day. Engineering school tends to require classes that are rather homework-heavy, and some days I’d spend a total of five (a few times during Mardi Gras, it could be even longer). As a result, I'm changing my school to one in New Orleans, but it doesn't offer a chemical engineering program, so I'll have to settle for a mechanical engineering degree, and possibly I'll be able to have a concentration in materials (I've already taken the classes required for that at LSU) with it, but I will have to speak to the department head about it. My reason for this non sequitir is that I have no clue how to do any coding, or really anything on a computer, and I'll have to take three 4-credit classes involving the use of computers to… compute? I learned how to use MATLAB, but I'm told by friends of mine who are engineers in varying disciplines that nobody uses that anymore, it's obsolete, they use CAD and others that I’d never heard of. I'm scared to death, but I can't give up now, nor do I want to, because I only have two years left, tops. If I don't finish my degree, it'll be difficult to repay my student loans. Perhaps I should study up on CAD before my first semester back at school. Oh, and thank you for your advice on orchid care. I lurked here for years before I got up the nerve to make an account, because I'm finally no longer the orchid murderer I once was. I'm more like a Dr. Jack Kevorkian [sic?] except my intent is to SAVE the orchids, not euthanize them. I even bought a fully-in-bloom Vanda from Lowe's today, and a nearly-dead mini-Phal for $3. The thing is, the Phal has eight tiny leaves that are perfectly healthy and stiff, and even has a perfectly healthy root system, just needs a better pot, new media to grow in, and the dead flower stalk cut off. $3. Maybe if they'd water the poor things, they'd be a bit happier, as they're in the 1.5" net pot packed with Sphagnum moss, dry to point of crispiness. On my way home with my acquisitions now, Nashville to New Orleans, I won't get home until next year! Happy New Years to you, and all (on this 7 year old thread or however old it is)!