Neostylis roots, healthy or unhealthy?

[Paul Mc]

Being a newbie to neostylis', I'm unsure what's healthy and what's not. I know with oncidiums, that brown doesn't mean bad necessarily. But some of my neo's roots are paperlike, or dangling by a thread. I'm assuming they are bad. Some of the dried, shriveled roots have ends that are still plump and dark green. Do I need to cut these roots off as well?

[Zoi2]

If they're mushy, I'd snip em off.
Joann

[RosieC]

I don't grow these, but the roots are very similar to Phals. Phals are considered a 'Vandacious' orchid (sure I've not spelt that right )

Based on that, they don't look to good to me. Brown is not in it's self a bad sign, they could have been stained by the medium. Like Joann suggested you should see if they feel mushy. If they feel hollow or mushy then they are dead.

[Paul Mc]

Thank you! That's kind of what I figured when I cleaned them afterwards. The interesting thing I noticed is that when you wet the roots they turn a dark green. Based on that and the feeling of the roots it was easy to see what was healthy vs. unhealthy.

I have to say that the roots turning colors when they get wet is really neat!

[RosieC]

I agree, when I had my first ever orchid (a Phal) my hubby and I quickly spotted that wet roots changed colour and we used that to judge watering. We thought "how great, and orchid that can tell you when to water it".

Years later when I joined orchid board I found other using the same indicator to judge watering.

It seems to be common accross all the Vandaceous orchids which all seem to have very similar roots.

[rathwulf]

Maybe the medium is a bit soggy I would lose it up a bit Neos like a copius watering and then watering as they are about to dry out. Neos like moving air around their roots.

[Paul Mc]

Thank you for the suggestion rathwulf. I potted it in lava rock, large bark chunks and peat chunks. I'm using RosieC's guidelines for watering, if the root is not green then water it. Is this the correct watering technique, or is this too much water? I don't believe the medium is holding much water as it's fresh.

It's in a ceramic pot with holes on it's side, sitting in a southern window w/ oncidiums. Should I put it in a vanda basket instead and move to a western window? I'm noticing that the southern window gets around 6-7000 footcandles of light. While my phaicalanthe, zygopetellum, bulbophyllum frostii and two oncidiums seem to be doing well, I'm afraid that's too much light.

[rathwulf]

There is one rule of thumb in watering and that is :know your medium.

You can put it in peat moss but you will have to watch out for it. Lava rock is nice as it retain moisture well I have some Neos in some Mexican Lava rock that has high water retention and it does fine but I water less frecuently I also have them in a transparent pot so I know exactly how the roots do.

RosieC advice is good for phals as they tell you when they are ready to get watered with their roots, phals are almost continuously in growth because their winters are very quick and not that cold.

Neos expirience super harsh winters but with high humidity and can take really cold temps. Some have adapted to survive for -5° (yikes).

Oh Neos like high light winter so you can see them bloom mid/end spring and/or summer. Also they should have a winter rest but never completely withdrawing water as they will suffer a bit, at least from my expirience :S

[Paul Mc]

WOW, that's really interesting. Thank you for that information.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The roots will not turn green if they are not exposed to enough light. That green is chlorophyll.

They will turn a plastic-like translucent white.