Sphagnbag is unfortunately not as fail safe as it sounds, and is quite condition dependent, at least in my experience. I can't get it to work most of the time actually...I think the idea is to provide a humid environment to minimize water loss until the plant decides it wants to grow new roots instead of dying. A humid environment is also perfect for rot though, so you need to make sure things are 100% clean before you bag em up. I always fail at this step and get nasty mold and rot growing. It's terrible!

I would cut off the rotten bits, disinfect, and try again. Did you soak the plant in some sort of nutrients before bagging up?

I have a friend who can sphag and bag practically a spec of green successfully, I've never had much luck with it, so it's highly user dependent.

Part of it comes down to making sure the sphag his *just* the right amount of moisture. Sounds like you might have too much now. It needs to be just barely damp so that you can no longer squeeze any moisture from it. I usually soak it over night, squeeze it out, then let it dry in front of a fan for at least the better part of a day. That's how I've had my best success. Also, you want just the right amount of humidity in there, along with daily doses of fresh air. Rooting hormones (carefully and lightly applied once) may help.

Good luck.

Thanks for the responses!

I guess I should have specified - "sphag'n'bag" means different things on different parts of the web!

I have the phals suspended in plastic bags with no medium. I have a handful of wet sphagnum in one corner of the bag, not touching the plants.

I had soaked them for an hour in a rooting hormone, then 15 minutes in physan 20. They've gotten soaked with physan 20 a few more times now, because I keep getting this light blue fuzzy mold growing on them. :/ One of them is starting to put out a root (and has a new leaf!) despite having no leaves and the twice-a-week physan soak.

Today I tried trimming better all the little old root stubs that were molding and covering it in cinnamon. I've also cracked the bags open a bit more.

If there's something else I should try, I'm all ears. :)

If you have roots, why are you using sphag and bag? It's my understanding that the process is for plants with no roots.

If you have any roots at all you'd be better off laying the plant in an empty pot with no medium and misting the roots occasionally until more roots grow, or putting the plant in a light medium and misting that just enough too keep the medium damp.

That's good to know for future reference.. unfortunately they both have no roots now. :/

Well, if the condition worsens I would try Tineacide. It's a nail fungus cream and I've used it on root rot before. It kills the fungus, not the plant and it works fast, probably better than cinnamon. It couldn't hurt at this point, right?

Megan

I also have a Phal. sphag 'n bag right now as well as one Paph. that I got from our local orchid society (unbeknownst to me, it was neglected and had NO roots). I was also having problems with new roots rotting with my Phal., but I knew immediately it's just too much moisture.

Here's what I've done (just to the Phal.) and I now have six little nubs of roots on my Phal. as well as a new leaf: I first soaked the entire Phal. under water in a one gallon bucket for a few hours. I used my RO system for the water and made sure to have plenty of air in the water while I soaked the Phal. I took a cotton swab to the part the new leaves grow from so it doesn't rot out any new growth. I then soaked the stem in [overly strong] Dip 'n Grow for an hour or more (that was by accident - got busy with the kids - I meant to soak for 15-30 mins). Let stem dry. I placed the Phal. in a gallon-sized clear bag right near the opening and covered the stem with just damp sphag. very loosely. I put it in my greenhouse under the lights (about 18" away) and I have a humidifier & fan going, making sure the air gets to the Phal. The Phal. is currently lying on its side because that's the best I can do right now.

I did have the root rot and the fungus problem once because I had the sphag. too wet.

I hope this helps in your efforts to save your Phal. :-)