Advice needed on roots of new Phal potted in sphagnum
 

I just got a PHALAENOPSIS WHITE DREAM 'V3' from Hausermann’s. It’s gorgeous… and far bigger than I expected. When it arrived the total package was half my height. The plant is in a 6” pot and has about half its buds open.

I would like some opinions on its root system though; it is potted in sphagnum (which I know is prone to causing root rot) and some of the visible roots look shriveled, others have brown spots. Is this cause for concern?

The exposed roots I can see in the photos actually look pretty good. Overall the plant looks great from what I can see.

The upper/exposed roots on one of my phals were in horrid shape when I bought it, crispy, papery, torn up, but the rest of the roots extending below the surface were extremely healthy. So long as the root core is alive it will function just fine.

The brown color is usually just staining or age related. Brown and firm isn’t anything to worry about. Brown and mushy is.

That is a wonderful clone.

Sphagnum is fine for orchids when the grower learns how to water it. Watering plants in sphagnum is very different from watering plants in bark.

Let the moss go crisp dry before watering. It shrinks and you can often slide the plant out of the pot easily to look at roots.

When it is crisp dar, run water over the top of the moss in the pot for only one second. That's it. The water will distribute throughout the moss leaving it barely moist and still full of air.

If your moss is all wet now, slide the plant out of the pot so it dries faster. Soaking wet moss will suffocate roots.

During hot times of the year, with a plant using a lot of water, you may be able to soak the sphagnum if the pot returns to crisp dry within a few days. But it's safer never to soak all the moss in the pot.

Sphagnum breaks down within 2 years. It is likely you plant is ready to repot soon. You don't need to repot into sphagnum but you could. Pack it quite tightly. This makes it harder to accidentally soak the moss.