I am stumped!

[Becca]

I know this may have been hit on a few times, but I never heard of any solutions that I can think of. I was watering my plants today, which I do about once a week and I was looking at some of the plants that was sent to me and previously potted in s/h. I repotted them in the PrimeAgra since they were shipped bare root and noticed some of the roots have really rotted since I potted them, about 2 weeks ago. Is this normal? I use a fan to circulate air, but I don’t have the fan blowing directly on the plants and it is very dry here were I live…today the RH is around 31% but it is usually much lower then that, especialy in the summer, and I haven’t been using humidity trays yet since converting the majority of my plants to s/h. I also noticed on a plant I recently converted, that was previously potted in a bark mixture, that it had a bunch of the white fuzzy fungus growing on the roots that I could see from the top and under the top layer of the PrimeAgra. I sprayed it today before and after watering the plant with a solution of Physan 20. Does anyone ever have these issues? The roots of the plants that were previously planted in s/h looked so healthy when I got them, I just don’t understand what is going on? The temps at night in the house are in the lower 60’s and during the day the temps are anywhere from the mid 70’s to 80, just depending on how warm it is outside since I try and leave the windows open as much as possible. I do have the plants in a corner of a room, but I have a fan blowing by them so I didn’t think that would be such an issue. I will be leaving tonight for the weekend and won’t be back until Monday so if I don’t reply to any responses then that is why. Thanks for any advice and have a great holiday weekend!

[Lagoon]

I don't grow in prime, But I would have to consider that the roots may have dried out too much during the transit, then put back in a fairly moist media, it rotted down instead of picking up well it left off.

I would cut off the rotten roots and try again.

[Charles]

Fungus is among us. It can blow on the wind. You may have had a spore bloom recently and anything particularly vulnerable got hit. Do any of your other plants show any signs?

[Gin]

I have found what Gloria stated I think it is from a moist condition to dry (bare root) It seems the roots that have been in s/h are touchier to changing conditions .
The growth on the roots is probably from remaining bark crumbs .. Gin

[quiltergal]

I read on Ray's website that the timing of switching plants to s/h is crucial. You are supposed to wait until the plant is showing new root growth to transplant. Apparently "old" roots are tuned in to the type of medium they were in previously. When you switch them to a different type of medium the roots become unhappy and die. That's why it's so important to have new roots in active growth. They will tune themselves to the s/h medium. That's also why the first watering is with KLN to encourage that new root growth.

[Ray]

Correct, Terry.

Root cells grow in a manner tailored to the environment they are in at the time, and once grown, do not change. If there is a significant difference between the original environment and the new one, the old roots may not do well and will die and rot. How fast is a matter of the type of plant and the degree of difference.

The death and rotting of old roots is to be expected, and is not "bad".

I can think of a couple of possibilities right off with Rebecca's plants: One might be (as was already stated) that the drying out of the bare roots in transit might have been a weakening influence. The other is that the so-called "semi-hydro culture" the plants were in wasn't really that, or that well done.

If the plant had truly been well established in s/h culture, I would have expected for it to have arrived with a large root mass surrounding and trapping lots of LECA particles - not "bare root" at all. Even if it had been well established, and the sender divided and removed all of the LECA before shipping, they probably damaged the roots a lot doing so.

In any case, if it was my plant, I'd keep the roots dry, but keep it very humid until NEW roots began to grow, then move it into s/h culture.

[rallygirl]

since this is turning out to be sort of a 'root' thread....

i recently repotted 3 seedlings into s/h
Angraecum sesquipedale
Masdevallia schroderiana
Stelis jemma

they were all tiny and suffering - the angraceum and the masd had hardly any roots at all. the stelis had a few little roots. there wasn't really much to trim by the time i got them out of the moss so i just rinsed them gently and put them in s/h.

strangely, the 2 with hardly any roots (angr / masd) are showing signs of new growth! i am not sure if the stelis is less suited to s/h now, or maybe it will be slower to grow.