fixing mold on rescue phal roots?

16 years ago

My rescue Phal is kind of annoying me. However, it's not getting Kev'd, because it's been quite a trooper, and it is also for my own education on how to save an orchid should I need to save a favorite somewhere down the line. And in fact, it is why I bought the thing even tho I knew it looked iffy (well, that and the nice yellow flowers...) Sooo, it had been hanging around since December or so, unpotted, very occasionally watered, sort of unofficially on its way to being Kev'd (due to those pesky molding roots and lack of time... bad me!) when I noticed it was actually growing a new leaf! Figured if it was going to do that, I might as well give it a real chance, and so I sphag and bagged it. The whole root molding thing, though, hasn't magically gone away, of course.

What's the best way to fix this problem? It's in the bag because it really doesn't have much in the way of roots, and the leaves are limp, but still green, and not very wrinkled. Cinnamon didn't do much to prevent anything, as the roots began molding in fir bark, after which I unpotted it, for um, months... whoops. I have Physan 20... will this do the trick? Is it scary to use? I'm a little wary of chemicals... I also have Neem oil, but I don't know if that would do anything. Just mentioning it in case it has some more magic qualities besides the ones I already know about.

Oh, just for reference, I do have a bunch of orchids that are doing quite nicely (including phals!) so this is my only sad sad case... which is still proving to be good for education's sake. I'd be happier if the lesson were successfully over, though : )

Thanks!

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Comments (4)

mehitabel
16 years ago
Hi, quinnfyre. Great that your phal is getting a new leaf. This is the time of year when it has a good chance to recover, too.

It's okay to spray phal roots with a dilute physan solution. In fact some authors recommend doing that as a precaution when repotting (and that's what I do, especially if there are any black nubs on the stem).

The physan should take care of the mold.

About the bagging-- if you repot, you can still keep the leaves bagged if the leaves are wilty. I usually use one baggie on each leaf, leaving the center open to avoid root rot. If you repot, the new leaf may be a sign that some very dilute fert would be in order.

If you are using sphag n bag, be sure to squeeze the sphag almost dry. Too-wet sphag in a a closed up baggie never works for me.

Good luck!
quinnfyre
Original Author
16 years ago
Hmmm, just bagging leaves sounds like a good idea. And I'm guessing the sphag may be too wet as well. I watered it with a bit of DynaGro KLN and fert before bagging it. I think I'll open bag the roots, spray with some Physan, and just bag the leaves.

I'm really impressed with its new leaf. This poor little guy has been through a lot, going from double spikes to almost rootless, mediumless, almost waterless when I couldn't devote time to what looked doubtful. But it's barely lost any leaves, is still nice and green, and growing. Still, it most certainly would've been dead if I'd left it at Trader Joe's, as I doubt anyone else would've said, hey, nice yellow flowers but most likely suffering from root rot; let's take it home on the cheap and see if I can learn something by nursing it back to health. More likely, it would've been, hey, nice yellow flowers... wait, why'd it die? Or nice yellow flowers, but it's prob got root rot... not buying it. Which is prob what I would've said if I weren't determined to bring a non-pink non-brown orchid home that day... oh well. Can't say I didn't know what I was getting into.
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In my situation, I'm actually finding that in large pots (8" or larger) CHC stays damp longer than spagh. I have a very large Phal hybrid in a 8" pot with CHC and even though the top inch or so dries out, if I really check down deep, the bottom portion is still fairly damp. Definatley one of those lift and check weight kind of plants. I also have a small Violacea species in a 4" pot with CHC and it does dry out fairly quickly, so it seems to based on quantity. I think that one thing that is important concerning using spaph, is how it is packed around the plant. I don't like plants to be hard packed into spagh, I'm more of the 'stuff as much as you can without hurting the roots kind of spagh guy'. When viewing through clear pots, I usually see some air voids in the media.(That is until the moss and such take over the clear pot). **Kneeling down seeking forgivenes from the phal goods, Bob makes this statement:** I water my 40+ phals once a week, on Saturdays. If the pot seems to still be damp, I wait until the next Saturday. It seems to work for me most of the time. There may be a special occasion or plant that I treat differently, but between misting mounties every morning and evening, the Wednesday morning waterings and dealing with the other 100+ non-phals, I need to keep things fairly simple and regulated to maximize my enjoyment of the hobby. A few years ago it started to feel like a 'job', so I took the more laid back approach. Back then, Saturday morning waterings took 2+ hours, Tuesday evening waterings took about 1-1.5 hours and it just started to seem like a hassle. I then switched up my grow room to accomodate watering in place (had been a hauler and dunker) and now the Wednesday morning watering takes @10-15 minutes and I can water my entire collection and the house plants on Saturdays in about 45 minutes. Shortening those watering times really helped me to enjoy my orchids even more. Bob
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I do not use the ST and KLN on a regular basis I keep that for my "rescues" (I tend to feel bad for the ones on the discount racks and try to save them.. Many are now doing very nicely and flowering) and for when I am transplanting a plant in the garden. But I also have many orchids bought at regular price which are healthy and mature. I thought that this particular orchid was one of them. :( Since the only new growth I saw on this plant was extra branches on its spike I think the roots had been like this before purchasing it. I am not in the habit of repotting healthy plants as soon as they are purchased so this was the first time I saw the roots. The phal had been potted up twice before by the nursey (there were three different colored layers of very tight sphag.) Since it was in a green plastic pot there was no way to see all the roots i had figured that the small section of the roots that I could see when I poked my finger into the pot was indicative of good healthy roots as was the upper condition of the plant which had nice thick leaves and two flower spikes. I tend to be an under waterer not an over waterer and for the new plants I use a skewer to check when to water. So I was very surprised to see wrinkled leaves. Unfortunately I can not currently post a picture because I don't have a working camera. Larissa
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It has been declining very slowly for 4 months now. Starting with root rot at purchase time. I have about ten phals, all doing well, except this one. Some of my phals are in just bark, one is in sphagnum, and a few, like this one, are in 50/50. I grow well in both mediums. The grow light is just one grolux tube. I have three minis growing under it, two of which have been there since purchase, and one which was recently moved there. None of them had trouble with light intensity. These phals grow more quickly than my other phals. The fast growth rate is the reason I moved this one off the windowsill and under the light. The yellow is spreading on the leaf, and resembles the leaves that were shed prior. I can only assume now that it has decided to drop the leaf.
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mehitabel
16 years ago
Hey, quinn. Should have said: leaving the center open to avoid *crown* rot (not root rot).

KLN is a great idea, too.

I agree that learning how to revive phals is useful-- if a precious darling starts to go downhill, you'll know how. Besides, "nice yellow flowers" could be glorious once it regains its health and puts up a really big spike.
quinnfyre
Original Author
16 years ago
Heh... I knew what you were trying to say. In fact, I didn't even notice that you said root instead of crown til just now.

They were very charming yellow flowers. Greenish yellow with light spotting and an orange lip. Should've taken a pic before they went downhill; unfortunately, that happened pretty quickly : (

fixing mold on rescue phal roots?

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fixing mold on rescue phal roots?

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mehitabel

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