Phalanopsis with small purple spots on stem

[Ray]

Keep cinnamon away from the root system!

[Heebs]

Originally Posted by camille1585

It looks rather healthy, even though it doesn't have many roots. I agree that the purple marks look like natural pigmentation rather than some disease or other. I would cut off that spike to let the plant focus it's energy on making new roots, pot up the plant in the smallest pot it will comfortably fit, and with time an good care it should recover nicely.

Hi Camille

Thanks for the potting tips..however l am a little anxious about potting it...i don't have much luck... with moss the orchids rot... with bark chips l get leaf drop and fusarium...l saw a YouTube video showing a lady who keeps her orchids bare rooted and dios them in water to hydrate them...

I live in Abu Dhabi and have north facing windows in my apartment. . The humidity is 40-53% but still l get rotting.

Any idea if orchids can thrive bare rooted or do they need to feel secure and snug to grow to maximum potential.

I also struggle with gnats so felt this orchid needed to be out of medium...l may try inorganic media ..

I really suggest orchids like to wrap their roots around and feel secure to really grow well and will try that once it's roots get longer..l just pray or doesn't die...it was my first orchid to bud from a secondary sphere.... l've never had a primary spike other than the ones it already comes with from the sellar.

Thanks for everyone's input...l really appreciate your generous spread of wisdom....l washed the cinnamon off today as l feel you are right...it want fusarium. .God willing it will grow healthy.

[SouthPark]

Heebs ----- these tips here could be useful ...
Click Here and Click Here and Click Here.

Also - as Ray mentioned ----- definitely keep cinnamon away from roots.

For gnat control, you could see if you can order some 'mosquito dunks'.

[Roberta]

Just a note... there's a person on YouTube that talks a lot about fusarium, and got lots of people worried about it. It's really rare in orchids, at least outside of damp, hot tropical areas. Any purple spots or rings you see are probably due to natural pigmentation - very common in pink, purple, and red orchids. So get your orchid settled into a medium that works well for your watering practices (so that it dries out somewhat between waterings, the desired effect is "humid air" around the roots), and let it grow.

[SouthPark]

Totally. Definitely don't get drawn into the fusarium paranoia bandwagon thing.

[aliceinwl]

I’d also add that I don’t think it hurts to leave the spike. In some of my Phalaenopsis that are struggling they’ll drop the flowers and then reabsorb what they can from the spike: another resource for the plant to draw from.

[Heebs]

Great advice

Thanks so much Alice, Ray, Roberta South park and Camille.

Alice.. thanks so much for putting my mind at rest about leaving the spike..l really wasn't to see the buds to bloom stage as it's something lve been struggling to achieve for a while without success.. my orchids just seem to die.

I had a beautiful orchid on my birthday last November.. will attach photo of what it looked like 6 months ago when l got it to its state today...l live its blooms and am struggling to keep it alive... l've thrown away so many orchids in the last 6 months as l can't manage to save them...l used to have green thumbs back when l was living in London... but did all my gardening outdoors.. now living in Abu Dhabi in a north facing apartment with no balcony... I'm lost...l just have to look at an orchid and it wilts.

[Brian1212]

hey heebs,
the plant you got given had developed root rot, you can see all the dead ends that were once roots. The purple spots that were developing into small bumps were the start of new roots but I am suspecting the combo of hydrogen peroxide, cinnamon, alcohol and whatever else you rubbed on them will not have done them any favours. Live and learn.

you can keep orchids bare rooted but ideally inside a vase to keep humidity up around them and they need to be watered regularly, I would say a healthy orchid daily but a recovering orchid might only need weekly watering. If it isn't growing it won't need much water and too much water caused it to lose most its roots in the first place.

It will probably stagnate a bit for the next year slowly regrowing roots, maybe it will grow a new leaf, then once it has recovered you might get some flowers but the person giving it to you will have known this and decided it wasn't worth their effort.

[Heebs]

Thanks Brian...l bought it discounted..but the birthday orchid was full price ( my daughter bought it but l chose it)...so very upset that it went downhill so quickly


I am keeping it in a vase and mist daily...sometime dunking the whole root system in water.

Thanks again.

[Roberta]

Heebs -
In your dry climate, that Phal might just respond well to sphagnum moss. Sphagnum is tricky... it holds a lot of water when packed, when it dries out it can be hard to re-wet. In general, I'd advise against it - lots of Phals come potted in it and end up with rotted roots. But circumstances alter cases. And in a desert (if you have air conditioning even worse humidity) keeping your plants hydrated is more of an issue than having them too wet. If that plant were mine, I'd wrap those little roots in sphagnum, put in a small plastic pot with good drainage (go by root size not plant size) and try to find that sweet spot of "damp not soggy".