Cymbidium root rot!
 

Hello everybody, I bought a large and healthy looking cymbidium at my local greenhouse on sale. The worker said I should repot it into an 8 inch pot, so I did and found out it had major root rot. All but the top inch of the root mass was rotted. So I cut all the roots off and let them sit in a dilute bleach solution for a short amount of time. I also coated the edges of the severed roots in cinnamon as I heard it was a good natural anti- fungal and secured it as good as possible in the 8 inch pot. Any further suggestions? There is abundant foliage and new growth, do you think the plant will make it and re-grow roots if I foliar feed it? And how often should I water it, if at all?
Thanks

Hi Jjspm, I don't know much at all about Cymbidiums but I hope you can nurse it back to health.

I do want to add a few things though, in the future you might not want to put cinnamon on the roots of orchids as it is a desiccant and might actually cause the remaining root to dry out rather than heal and grow more. Also, I don't think bleach is good for plants either. In the future you might just want to use Physan or a similar anti-fungal instead of those two things. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Good luck!

soak the roots in fish emulsion or seaweed extract for a few hours then just place it in an orchid compost/ pot it up, water normaly and water with fish emulsion every week. that will encourage the roots to grow and it will also keep the foliage healthy!
hope that helps! :)

Physan is not available in Canada that leaves many of us here in a dark regarding what to use instead for desinfection and bacterial rot prevention.

I bought algae-kill from the spa supplies dept in Wal-Mart as I've read it has the same ingridients but the challenge is to know the proportion as this stuff is highly concentrated and designed for large pools, not plants.

Ok, so what should I do now, remove the orchid and wash with water? How do you make fish emulsion?

Looks like I'm going ice fishing!

LOL I don't know about fish emulsion but maybe you can get your hands on some KLN or Superthrive, both would probably help in starting new roots.

Pictures of the roots and plant would help. Cymbidiums are very tenacious plants and will grow new pseudobulbs which new roots will grow from. The old growth is not much more than store houses for the new growth. Losing the roots on them is not catastraufic...catastrofic...catastroufic....oh hell....not that bad. How far along is the new growth? The new growth will put out roots when the pbulbs are about half grown. Some sooner some later but this is what is important. The new roots on the new growth. The plant is not some weenie and has the ability to fight infections on it's own as long as the conditions from which the infection/affliction arose has been changed. Fresh media (I'd opt for a coarse bark based media which will allow good air movement) will go a long way toward eliminating any further bacterial or fungal attacks. It is winter now and the plant doesn't need a lot of water. Don't water after noon so that the roots have a chance to dry out by nightfall. Cool and wet will make matters worse. Cool and dry is ok. The old pbulbs will see the new growth through until spring when it starts to warm up. Remember that the old growth will not put out new roots. They are finished growing and are there to support the new growth. Fish emulsion is a very weak fertilizer. The plant doesn't need fertilizer right now. It needs to dry out in fresh media.

you can buy fish emulsion in the fertiliser part of the store.

I buy fish emulsion and seaweed extract from Rona and Canadian Tire. Mind you not every store has it, so it's a foot trip or a phone call in order.

You can also order these from Veseys
Veseys

I prefer seaweed to fish emulsion as it's much less smelly.

K-L-N is available from Bustan in Toronto
Bustan - Toronto Hydroponics Grow Lights Nutrients Hydroponic Supplies Canada

And Paramount
SUPPLIES

But, of course, shipping prices are always dissapointing.

Good luck!
Lilia :waving

I don't think a dilute bleach solution should harm anything

I do agree about not using ground/powdered cinnamon on healthy roots.

Cyms are tough buggers - (your photo link didn't work for me, so can't comment on yours specifically) - but if there are any roots at all, you probably don't need to worry, and even NO roots would not necessarily be a catastrophe. As James said, new roots will come in time on the new growth.

Thank you everybody, if the loss of roots isn't a huge deal, then would it be possible to get my cymbidium to bloom soon? Because I bought it out of bloom. The lady at the store said it had been out of bloom for a few months, and I heard cymbidiums are very free flowering. How would I go about promoting a spike if its even possible at this point?Attachment 76038

Most Cyms spike in fall to bloom in winter or spring. There are some that may spike other times. The loss of roots isn't a huge deal in that the plant will most likely survive and recover, but may delay blooming.

Cyms are two year plants. That means a pbulb starts growing and usually takes a year to grow to completion and then put on lots of starches and sugars to enable it to sustain a spike and blooms. This takes another year. So a pbulb starts growing in the spring, grows till the next winter putting on fat, grows through the next summer spiking in the fall to bloom in winter or early spring.

So it could or couldn't start blooming, it just depends on what variety it is? Are there any culture requirements different than normal that could encourage spike formation if it was going to happen?

"Warmth tolerant" types will bloom when they are at the proper stage, if they have had proper culture. Good light, fertilized. If roots are poor, it might need time to recover and grow roots before blooming again.

True cool growers are more likely to be seasonal, spiking in autumn after receiving a period of several weeks of cool night temps.

If this were my plant, I would just try to grow it well - lots of light, regular fert and water during spring and summer especially - and it should spike when it's ready / able

Ok thanks

OMG - you have gotten more advice than fleas on a dog! Some of it is well meaning but some of it questionable.

First of all, never use Clorox of any dilution on an orchid! Use it to sterilize pots and potting tools. Cinnamon is in fact a dessicant and is fine for your purpose, but so is just letting the roots air outside the pot for a couple of days. I cannot see the photo, so I do not know how many bulbs you are dealing with here or how large the plant is.

Since I came into this discussion late, I can only suggest you might consider sending me an email address where I can send you the Repotting Procedure my club uses here in California for our Annual Hands on Potting Workshop. I have sent it to many members of this Forum and they have all found it very helpful.

Until then, keep your plant on the dry side and hope for the best. Start fertilizing lightly in the spring when the weather starts to warm up. I doubt it will bloom this year as it has been going downhill with no roots for a while and the plant will have to build up strength in the most mature bulbs before they are strong enough to send out a spike.

Good Luck,

Cym Ladye

Hydrogen peroxide should be available at any convenience or grocery store. It can help clean up the bad stuff; just let it fizzle and do its job.

As said above, never sprinkle and coat the entire root with cinnamon. I've dabbed the cut ends of roots with cinnamon and found no detrimental side effects.

Also wanted to add--cymbidiums are truly tough plants. You can even cut off a rootless backbulb (do not actually do this to your plant, because it needs all its bulbs to provide fuel for new growth)--and the bulb can grow into a nice new plant. I see your plant has multiple bulbs, meaning it is much stronger than one single back bulb, so it should be fine!

I think I'm just going to wait a while and keep the orchid drier and hope for the best!
Thanks for your help