Shrinking Roots?
 

Hi guys! I had a phal in the office that I put in just plain lava rock. The air in the office is pretty dry. When I first bought this, I put it in a large clay pot because the roots just wouldn't fit in a regular 4" pot.

After 2 weeks, I looked at the roots and found out there were two roots that rotted. However, the rest of the roots seemed to be shorter. The reason I said this is because if they had rotted there would be rotten roots all over the place but there aren't - just those 2 I told you about.

The rest of the roots seemed to get shorter, they used to be at least 4" long but now they are almost stub-like, maybe 1" long.

Did they shrink? Is there such a thing as shrinking roots?:scratchhead: The plant itself looks ok, no wilting.

Now what I did is put the roots in sphag with lava rock at the bottom of the pot. I also put the orchid in a much smaller pot.

I have another phal right beside it where I used sphag on the roots and lava rock at the bottom and the roots are so happy! They did not rot and are doing fine.