Brown surface on roots of phalaenopsis orchid
 

Hi

I bought a phalaenopsis two spike orchid in November and the bloom had partly fallen off with about 5 flowers on the spikes. It was relatively healthy at the time I thought, but I noticed the surface of the roots and the base of the orchid had brown layers on them, but I didn't know it would be a problem until now.
Since November the blooms have remained. They have not opened, but they are not wilting away either. Our house is warm but not hot and there isn't much difference in temperatures during the day and night, so has this affect the flowers?

Can someone advise what is wrong with my orchid? The blooms have been on the spikes since November, the roots have a strange brown layer at the top but the rest of the roots in the pot are green and look fine. The leaves are also turning yellow. PLEASE HELP!!

If you could post a picture of the roots and flower buds we could probably better identify what is going on.

Hi Orion141, thank you for the reply, the forum won't let me maybe because I'm still new? I do have pictures and linked them to a webpage but I just can't post here. Is there any other way? Can I send you a picture?

You have to have 5 posts before you can add links.

And Welcome!

It's possible it's iron in the water. I get that here as we have high iron dissolved in the water.

Photos will help and you should be able to post them now.

Here is the picture below: As you can see there are still flowers on the spikes, but the roots look as though they are dying and the leaves are turning yellow. I don't water it often and I always drain the water before putting back in another decorative pot. It is placed inside a room of a south west facing window so it does get some sun though recently in England there wasn't much, mostly cloud and rain. Could it be not enough sunlight?

Will trimming the spikes give it a better chance of survival?

I wouldn't recommend cutting those roots. The plant has plenty of good roots to work with. New roots will grow from the older roots that are still alive. The way the roots look in those photos, if you cut them, there could be some problems later down the line.

Which leaves are turning yellow? Are they the bottom-most ones, or are they higher up along the plant?

What are the temperatures like where the plant is being placed?

Do you have photos of the entire plant as well, (not just the roots)?

It looks like the roots that have been down in the media are fine, but the sections that were above the media have dried out. I have low humidity in winter & get this on the exposed roots of many of my phals. I don't want to water more often as this will rot the roots that are down in the media, so I have done a couple things this year to help keep this from happening: 1) When the roots on the surface of the media turn silver-green, very lightly mist these roots 2) add a very small amount of sphagnum moss just around these roots to help them stay hydrated a day or two past when you water.

It looks like you have plenty of "stem" between these roots & your first leaf. When you repot, try to get all the roots covered with media. You can sink the phal into the media up to the bottom of the first leaf (so that the first leaf is still sitting on top of the media).

Thank you for all the advice so far. I have now cut away the two spikes and placed the phal in our north facing kitchen where humidity is a lot higher and it's also warmer as the kitchen is a smaller room.

I will spray the exposed roots a little and see how that goes.