HELP! First Phal has sickly roots!
 

Hi I received my very first phalaenopsis orchid for Valentine's this year. It had three blooms open, 4 large buds, and two spike ends with many little micro buds. The micro buds fell off the first week, I had forgotten to open my blinds before work and I think they were light deprived. It lives by a west facing window, indoors. I've been soaking the pot once a week for 5-10 min and draining. After the open blooms began to fade I repotted from the soil like mix it came in with a bark mix (it also began to have a soft faint white mold at the bottom of the pot so I stopped using the pink pretty outer pot so it'd get more air). At that time I checked the roots, none looked like the super perfect healthy silver with green tips I've seen online. They were more brown and papery. I followed advice I saw on YouTube to rinse the roots prior to repotting since I saw that mold. It's been a month and the 4 buds have barely moved. I checked the roots today and they look no better. Can they be saved? How can I help this orchid grow new healthy roots? I took some video to show the issues.

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Unfortunately, the videos/pics don't show. My guess, however, is that your Phal is suffering from a fairly classic case of overwatering, which can lead to a classic case of root rot. That's a straight-up match for how you've described conditions.

The very first thing you need to do is forget about those buds. Don't cut them, of course, but be prepared to lose them. You need to allow the roots to get air and have taken steps toward that. (Into what sort of pot did you repot the plant?) It's also really important to allow the bark to completely dry out before watering. More Phalaenopsis orchids are killed by too much water than too little (and don't get me started on that ice cube insanity). Give it a tad extra dry time to encourage the plant to grow new roots. It shouldn't take long before they begin to develop.

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

These threads can be of a huge amount of help.

Using skewers to determine when to water

The Phal abuse ends here.

I've let it dry out, I skipped last week's watering. I took it out of the pot (it's the pot it came in, bottom drainage holes, clear plastic - I've seen others punch holes up the sides but I haven't tried to make that yet) and got new pics of the roots, dry and papery, no green. I moistened the bark a little, drained it, and repotted it. The leaves are still dark green but getting shriveled. The buds are still there but have barely moved.

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I can't see the pics, but in my opinion if all the roots are dried and/or rotted, I would abandon the flower spike. Cut it off at the base of the plant and place in a vase if there any blooms for you to enjoy. This will help divert the plants energy to root formation and away from blooming.

Just my 2 cents because I cannot see the plant.

i figured out how to embed links, but they are the same ones i posted before, i just had to modify it so the forum would let me add them by spelling out the . as 'dot'. if you remove the spaces, backspace 'dot' and type . they work for me on multiple computers, though sometimes tinypic takes a minute to load or you have to refresh.

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and here is a video from my original post

I would do as I suggested above. Cut the spikes and save the plant.

Don't despair, orchids can grow new roots, but I wouldn't delay in cutting the spikes off, especially since the leaves are withered a bit.

My husband gave me an orchid a couple years ago, and I repotted it immediately to find that it had not roots. I cut the spike, put it in my phal mix, and it began to put some new roots out. Now it is a healthy plant and flowered this year.

Thanks...I was able to view the pics this time.

thank you for your advice!

how often should I water & how much? the original instructions it came with said soak the pot for 5 min once a week but that was too much obviously or the store had already been over watering it too.

also do you think the buds will continue to open in water?

How often you water depends on several things - how much humidity is around the plant, what medium the plant is potted in, and what sort of pot as main examples. The best way to check is to put a wooden food skewer into the pot and leave it for about 10 minutes. If, upon removal, you can feel any moisture on the skewer then it's too early to again water the plant. Phals like to get just dry between waterings so the roots can breathe.

Flowers, once removed from the stem, won't open further.

I agree with the above poster. My phals are in a coconut husk mix and I water them maybe once a week.

You can use the skewer method for sure until you learn how the pot feels when it needs watered.

At this point, don't worry or stress over the lost flowers. If you can nurse her back to health, she will give you more in the future!