Tolumnia Roots: Good or bad?
 

This is a follow-up from my last post where I discovered that my Tolumnia's roots were wet after watering the plant 2 and a half days ago. I removed the bark medium and misted the plant's roots this morning (with some rooting hormone suspended in the mist). 9 hours later, and my roots are nearly dry. They will be dry by nightfall :)

I also have discovered some new white roots starting to form around the base of my plant (see photo upper right. This makes me wonder... are the brown roots rotten? I bought the plant like this and just assumed that this is how their roots were.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...cture11826.jpg

Finally, I can post pictures! :biggrin:

Your roots are fine. But you have a bacteria or fungi infestation= look at the discoloration at the base of the shriveling wrinkly leaves....
I suggest you go to Rays site and purchase Inocucor Garden Solution ....this will be quite handy in the future if ever you encounter any infestation of this kind again.

---------- Post added at 04:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------

Search - inocucor

Okay, thanks! I'll purchase and apply it. I was wondering why it was looking worse and thought it might be from the roots.

If the roots are soft and mushy, they are dead. If they are firm, they are fine. Old roots in batk do discolour and new roots tend to be white.

if you forget to water them for a day, don't worry....these kind of orchid plant likes to dry out before watering. Chances are: your plant got too much water and developed fungi or bacterial infestation.
Read this for Tolumnia culture:

Tolumnia Culture

* in order to help you better....pls put your grow zone = this is important to give you advice on humidity, light and temperature

I'm zone 5b. I just purchased both Physan and Inocucor to help my plant along. Pysan is for curing and Inocucor is for helping with immunity, right?

And my roots are not soft ;)

The older part of the plant has shriveled because it wasn't getting enough water. This can mean dead roots, or rotten leaf bases or stem, all of which would prevent water from flowing to the leaves.

The new growth on the right in the photo is not shriveled. Its new roots have been able to supply enough water so far. The roots that grow from the new shoot will be what keeps the plant alive, so it is important to treat them well.

A lot of people don't use any potting medium at all for Tolumnias, because it may keep them wet too long. The link Bud gave you should help. Note it mentions growing them in pots only after discussing mount and basket culture, which are preferred by most growers.

I recently bought a T. variegata seedling on a wood mount. There is some sphagnum moss below the majority of the plant, but I think only a few roots are in the moss. I have been spraying the part out of the moss with rain water 2-5 times per day. It dries out between. It has not shriveled in my growing room, which has 40%-60% humidity. The roots remain in good condition. So even a very tiny seedling does fine drying out between waterings.

YUP I also find old roots tend to be stained brown. Roots look good to me.

Roots are generally good, thanks everyone! They have been absorbing daily misting just fine, and some are turning whiter (bark color washing off). Some are a bit soft after misting, so I do have a little bit of rot from the bark, but it shouldn't be anything to worry about.

I have been misting with Inocucor and have applied Physan twice to the leaves with a q-tip (one week apart).

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...cture11841.jpg

I'll probably loose 3 more leaves, but the ones I have are looking a bit more plump (although more spotted from the Physan).