Repotting phal w/ mushy roots

[Stoniegirl]

Hi everyone. I bought this phal several weeks ago on clearance at Lowes. At the time she had a broken flower spike but was in otherwise good condition. The leaves looked great, no visible problems. She did look a bit root bound, the roots were tightly wound around the inside of the pot but were mostly green and firm. I had been putting off repotting her because she was so tightly packed in and I did not want to break the new flower spike. After a few days at home I noticed small insect crawling around in the pot and the condition of the leaves had began deteriorating. I treated her with a mix of 50/50 alcohol/water and cinnamon oil. I have not seen any pests since. The roots have been gradually turning brown but still looked firm. This morning I checked on her and she had white fuzzy mold on some of the tightly packed roots. I decided that she need to be repotted. I removed the old medium (found a small snail). Root are mostly firm although a lot of them look broken in multiple places. I removed the mushy ones. I am at a loss on what to do next. Not sure if I should repot her in to a bigger pot or the same size she was in? Should I cut off more roots? Please help. Any and all suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance!

[estación seca]

This is how a lot of big-box Phals arrive. Fortunately, most can be saved. The first thing to do is what you did: unpot, remove all the old medium, and remove the dead roots. The next part is rerooting.

Figuring out which are really dead takes some learning. If they're wet and mushy, that's obvious. But a lot of dry brown roots are still OK. I just remove the really dead ones, and look again several weeks later to remove the remaining dead ones.

Some people would also cut the spikes, so the plant puts energy into new roots and growing instead of flowering. Your plant isn't that ill, so I might be tempted to leave the small new spike. But plenty of other people here would cut it off now and hope for more flowers in a year or so.

I personally don't treat roots with anything other than water or KelpMax. I don't know what cinnamon does to roots, but some people say it isn't good. I know how it felt when I got some cinnamon powder in my eye once, and I wouldn't do that to orchid roots. Plants have strong anti-fungal defenses, and normally removing the dead roots is all you need to do.

I mentioned KelpMax. This is a seaweed extract that has rooting hormones. Many people, me included, think it does help promote new root formation. I soak plants I'm repotting in a solution of this for varying lengths of time before repotting. I also use it on my plants once a month. Other people use other seaweed products. I mail-order KelpMax from First Ray's, but you can buy other kelp products at hydroponics stores.

Now you have several options for rerooting and growing on your cleaned orchid. It will root and regrow best if it's kept warm and humid, there is plenty of air at the roots and it stays moist but not wet.

Many people would pot it into the smallest pot that accepts the root system, using a very large chunk medium such as large bark with all the fine material screened out; large chunk lava rock; or clay balls (LECA), which you can also buy at a hydroponics shop. Go to the beginners forum and look for a thread on using wooden cooking skewers to check for wetness in the pot:

Using skewers to determine when to water

Most people let their Phals dry out completely between watering.

Some people grow phals in sphagnum moss. I don't think this is a good idea for beginners, until they really learn what it means to have the medium dry out between waterings. A lot of commercial growers use sphagnum successfully, but it takes a lot of judgment to use it properly. It does allow you to space out watering intervals much further apart.

Another option for rerooting is called sphag and bag. This is more often used for completely rootless plants, and yours still has good roots. You can search for this phrase with the search function in the top maroon menu, but I wouldn't do this with your plant, since it has some good roots.

Some people would set the plant into a large glass vase with nothing inside. The roots dangle into the vase. You water either with a spray bottle, wetting the roots once or twice a day, or by filling the vase with water and dumping it out. Some people let the plants soak in the vase for a few hours when they fill it. I first read about this on a thread by Helene here on the Orchid Board:

Repotting overgrown phal

I am using this method on a large phal I bought for $5 that I knew had bad roots. So far it is doing really well. Once the plant reroots, you can leave it in the vase, or put it into a pot.

So those are some options. Also read the sticky thread in the beginners section:

The Phal abuse ends here.