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!!