The Phal abuse ends here.

[dreamynights]

Hi all,

I repotted my orchid in March, about two months ago. The orchid had troubles with its blooms with some bud blast. After all the blooms fell, I cut off the spike and repotted. A lot of the roots were rotting and had to be cut off. I tried to keep as much green as possible but most of the green roots did not look too good either - they were mostly dark green with spots of dark brown undertones. All the tips of the roots were also black - I cut some off and dusted with cinnamon. The orchid had originally been in 100% sphagnum moss. I repotted in moss with some bark and charcoal mixed in. After about a month, I started fertilizing lightly, about twice so far. My mother has also been watering the orchid and does not wait for the moss to completely dry out.

I noticed about 2 weeks ago that the crown of the bottom leaf had browned. I tried to keep water away from the crown and dry out all droplets I saw. The browning does not seem to have progressed. The bottom leaf had been shown a slight yellow undertone. This week I started noticing a small brown undertone along with it.

This week I also saw at least 15 small white bugs crawling on one of the roots. They were pretty fast, not slow. Google suggested they were mealy bugs. I did not see any white fuzz anywhere so maybe they are something else? I swiped the area with rubbing alcohol and got all the little bugs. I found two small red objects - one stuck in a tight space in a root. Do they look like an egg or something else?

I also removed a bunch of the moss around the area and the crown. However, upon removing some of the moss from the crown, it can be seen that where the roots connects to the crown are black and shriveled. All previous brown spots seem to be continuing to turn worst. Most of the roots are still firm but two roots at the bottom that are black are starting to be a little mushy.

My questions are - what might be the cause of the root connections to turn black and thin like this? Is it root rot or did I fertilize too soon? Should I cut off all the roots with bad connections or wait longer since most of them are still firm? Also could I get detailed descriptions of possible white bugs that might have appeared on my orchid?

Thank you!