How to save my orchid?

[estación seca]

If the moss is too old it doesn't absorb water normally. With good moss packed into the pot there is no space along the sides of the pot. When you run the water over just the top a little will soak in.

[starwave]

Just want to give more background:
First picture was when I bought it. January 2020.
Second one was in march.
Looked good at that time.

[starwave]

In July 2020. It had flowers again.
I thought the pot was too small, so I changed to bigger one in September.

[starwave]

After repot, in Dec 2020, it had new roots, still looked OK.
The flower one was taken in March 2021.
The outside of moss became green because the new plastic pot was too big for the original outside pot. So I didn’t use one. It turned green because of light I think. Not sure how much it affects the plant.

[estación seca]

Did you repot it after December 2020? If not that's probably too long for moss.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by starwave

It was in a darker place. I just moved it to the current room two weeks ago because it’s brighter. Well , not as bright as outdoors but the brightest in my place because it has skylight.

What is important is giving the plant enough hours of light. It doesn't need a lot of brightness. The skylight will help because it will get more hours of good light. (Windows tend to have the problem that the sun shifts and then there's not much light) At this time of year, the skylight will likely give you the hours that you need. However, by the end of the summer you'll still need to supplement that light with some artificial light to get the duration, you can't get away from the fact that at northern latitudes, the days in fall and winter are short and often rather dark with cloud cover.

As far as water goes, if it runs out the bottom, that 's good, If the plant is in sphagnum moss, what you DON'T want is soggy. When sphagnum dries out, it tends to shed water. So that's fine, you'll have air in the root zone - Phals want "humid air" not "wet". The advantage of bark is that it tends to keep those vital air spaces... it is much harder to overwater in bark than sphaghum. (In hot weather you can water every other day in bark, and the plant will be very happy, while that may be too frequent for sphag unless it is very fresh.)

[starwave]

After that, don’t remember when, I saw almost all the roots in the pot became black. I think that’s because one day I added too much fertilizer. I always used a little bit miracle-gro all purpose. Once I dropped a big piece in the water… I thought it wouldn’t affect too much but I was wrong…
So I cut the dark roots. Repot it and put all the air roots in the pot. After a while, one air root was good after being in the pot. Others became dark again. So I repot it again… and accidentally broke the good root… when I said good roots, I mean the ones with green tip.
After that, roots didn’t become black. However, all the new roots didn’t go into the pot. They all went up and then dried out. At the same time, leaves kept falling.
So I felt there was something still wrong and I hanged it.

---------- Post added at 08:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:22 PM ----------

Originally Posted by estación seca

If the moss is too old it doesn't absorb water normally. With good moss packed into the pot there is no space along the sides of the pot. When you run the water over just the top a little will soak in.

Do you mean that moss needs to be packed tightly so that there is no space along the sides?
But then how to keep air there?
I packed moss loosely at the beginning, then found it was difficult to make it wet, so I pushed them tighter…

[Roberta]

I like to have moss loose so that it does dry out fast. There are other people who have better success with having it packed. As I mentioned, my preference would be to use bark rather than moss because it is much easier to get the watering right. For a start though, you need to stop messing with the plant! And don't cut any more roots even if they don't look good. Pot it however works best for you, then water it so that it is not soggy, but just moist. One approach is to water it well, let it drain, and then weigh it on a kitchen scale or postal scale. Weigh it the next day, etc. When the rate of weight loss slows down (not much more water to evaporate) it's time to water.

There are many ways to get this right. The goal is "humid air" around the roots. Keep the goal in mind. Don't worry about air roots - you can mist them to keep them firm and happy. The most productive roots will be the new ones in the pot. But even a bad root is better than no roots... it can hydrate the plant while it is growing new ones.

[starwave]

Originally Posted by Roberta

What is important is giving the plant enough hours of light. It doesn't need a lot of brightness. The skylight will help because it will get more hours of good light. (Windows tend to have the problem that the sun shifts and then there's not much light) At this time of year, the skylight will likely give you the hours that you need. However, by the end of the summer you'll still need to supplement that light with some artificial light to get the duration, you can't get away from the fact that at northern latitudes, the days in fall and winter are short and often rather dark with cloud cover.

As far as water goes, if it runs out the bottom, that 's good, If the plant is in sphagnum moss, what you DON'T want is soggy. When sphagnum dries out, it tends to shed water. So that's fine, you'll have air in the root zone - Phals want "humid air" not "wet". The advantage of bark is that it tends to keep those vital air spaces... it is much harder to overwater in bark than sphaghum. (In hot weather you can water every other day in bark, and the plant will be very happy, while that may be too frequent for sphag unless it is very fresh.)

Thank you for the suggestions. I will pay more attention to light later. Right now the day is pretty long.

I have bark for two pots of oncodium. They are good. Just dry out very quickly in summer. Because the phal came in moss so I always thought moss was best for it.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by starwave

Thank you for the suggestions. I will pay more attention to light later. Right now the day is pretty long.

I have bark for two pots of oncodium. They are good. Just dry out very quickly in summer. Because the phal came in moss so I always thought moss was best for it.

Keep watering those Oncidiums... they don't like to dry out. Phals can get a little drier (but not completely dry) Commercial nurseries like sphagnum because they don't have to water as often... and they are very precise with it. (Also, bare root plants can be imported in sphagnum but not bark) But for a hobbyist, it is much harder to get it right. Lots of different media will work, just remember that your goal is "humid air"