Promenaea survival?
 

Figured I'd repost this here to see what you peeps think.


Well..I got my Promenaea xanthina today....kind of a mixed bag to temper my excitement. The good news...large plant with a ton of roots and new growths. The bad news...came potted in a net pot PACKED in sphagnum moss...totally compacted, so in the process of removing the moss, I ended up breaking a lot of roots and one of the many developing shoots. I feel a bit meloncholy, hopefully the new shoots make enough root to replace the broken/cut ones.

Anyway..here is the final mount I made.
http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/a...a01_3-1-12.jpg

http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/a...a02_3-1-12.jpg

Any idea if it can survive such root damage? I kinda wish I had a time machine so I could go back and just leave it in the pot it came in, but I also know that dense moss would have probably lead to rot in my conditions..the humidity is fairly high in my cool chamber and even the water loving plants seem happiest either mounted or with a very open mix. It does have some developing roots that appear unharmed.....think that will be enough?

As long as there are some new roots developing, in a nice humid environment like yours, I can't imagine it won't be able to bounce back.

I generally find soaking the sphag for a good long while really helps loosen it up - an occasional re-dunk also helps!

Well...that's good news....normally I wouldn't worry so much, but I have no experience with this genus, and I've never had to bust perfectly good roots when unpotting an orchid...it's upsetting.


I tried soaking it for an hour...prolly should have waited even longer....