Can sick phals grow new roots?
 

Someday I will learn to stop buying orchids at grocery and hardware stores... but until then, I will keep nursing the ones I have bought there back to health!

I'm fairly new to this. My first orchid is doing well, but ever since I lost a pretty mini phal to root rot (I blame the grocery store for letting it sit in too much water), I'm a little paranoid.

This Phal noid had some rotten roots when I brought it home. I trimmed them off (sterile scissors), treated with fungicide, potted in "Better Gro" bark mix, water about 1-2 a week with fertilizer as needed, and keep it in a fairly humid room. When the blooms started drooping, I checked out the roots and they look dry and dead. I there any way to get it to grow new roots?

http://i46.tinypic.com/sebpqo.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/eg97nn.jpg

Can be hard to resist the temptation (I know I bought a few too many from those stores and now I need to deal with the consequences)!

Don't cut off the longer roots--even if they look dead, there's a chance that a small portion is still alive. You can try the regular sphag-and-bag method, where you wrap sphag loosely around the roots and you place the plant inside a plastic bag to retain humidity. I've heard some people use rooting hormone, but I tried and I haven't seen a difference in my sick orchids. Well, keep your plant in a warm place and hopefully it'll send out new roots (well, spring is coming up, which is good)!

I've had real good luck with rootless phals in water culture. This link may be of interest to you.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...+water+culture
Joann

The keys to getting such a plant to recover are warm temperatures (via jacking up the thermostat or under-pot heating) to accelerate growth, shade to direct that growth less to the leaves, and high humidity to prevent it from becoming desiccated while it grows new roots.

Ray's, and other's, suggestions are good. The key now is to focus the plant on root growth rather than anything else. I'd suggest cutting the flower spike off entirely. Warmth is essential, as is humidity. While the plant recovers you might want to mist it a bit more than usual so that it can foliarly absorb more water - but be careful to NOT allow water in the crown! Finally, though I don't often advocate the use of SuperThrive, it is known to contribute to root development and so you might want to water with it.

If all is well, you'll see new root nubs begin to develop. Be patient, and keep babying the plant until you get some good, new root growth, say 4 or 5 inches at least. With proper care, the plant should fully recover and reward you with a nice spike in the future.

Thanks for the input... it seems to be doing better. I did cut the spike off right away, and since that onslaught of snow here in the northeast has kept me from getting out to buy sphag, I made do with damp paper towels. Some of the roots turned a happier shade of yellow-green and the leaves perked up a bit.

But, I'm having a new problem with all my phals - MOLD. About once a week, the blooms start to droop, and when I dig out some of the bark to check the roots there is fuzzy white mold on them. I think this is partially what did this particular phal (discussed above) in. A shower of fungicide usually takes care of it, but any thoughts on why this is developing? Where is the fine line between keeping the plant humid, and it becoming a fungus farm? I water sparingly, keep water in the dish of stones beneath the pot, and have a humidifier running.

Thanks for the input... it seems to be doing better. I did cut the spike off right away, and since that onslaught of snow here in the northeast has kept me from getting out to buy sphag, I made do with damp paper towels. Some of the roots turned a happier shade of yellow-green and the leaves perked up a bit.

But, I'm having a new problem with all my phals - MOLD. About once a week, the blooms start to droop, and when I dig out some of the bark to check the roots there is fuzzy white mold on them. I think this is partially what did this particular phal (discussed above) in. A shower of fungicide usually takes care of it, but any thoughts on why this is developing? Where is the fine line between keeping the plant humid, and it becoming a fungus farm? I water sparingly, keep water in the dish of stones beneath the pot, and have a humidifier running.

I think that it's most likely the mold would grow if the plant is overwatered, or the potting material is too broken down. Or both.

Just started a new thread about the mold...

The potting mix is brand new and not breaking down. I water very sparingly.