First couple photos are from one of my orchids. It had root rot (I think from the potting material) so I trimmed the bad roots and now it appears most of them have died, however the two remaining leaves and the spike seem perfectly healthy so I can't determine if this one is doomed or not. It doesn't appear to have grown any new roots but there is no sign of rot or disease on the leaves. The blooms very quickly wilted away and have not grown back. The second one had these two larger growths coming from it before but are now dying including the spike. Again the blooms fell off quickly and have not grown back. However in this one, the roots appear to be fine (I haven't taken it out of the pot but all the roots I have seen growing around and under the plant are white and look fine). I don't know what I'm doing that's killing them. They are in indirect light. I only water them when they appear really light or every 10 days whichever comes first. Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated so I can either revive them or not make the same mistakes on my next set of orchids. These orchids came from different places.
by Wanderingghost12
4 Comments
I’m not an orchid expert, just a hobbyist, but my first question is always drainage and soil if there’s no glaring problem with light. Are they all in well-draining pots where water can pass through vs. pooling in the bottom? I don’t see the pot the first one is in, and the second one may have a well-draining interior pot, but if water passes through and pools in the solid outer pot the orchid could still drown.
That first one looks like it’s in straight up sphagnum moss, which retains water like a champ (the opposite of well-draining). Phals do well in large aggregate potting media that drains immediately, so I suspect you may have drowned it even though you were watering infrequently.
Adding to other comments – both orchids are lacking in airflow and access to oxygen. Pure sphagnum will do that, and so will a cache pot.
My phals are in 100% bark, and all others are in equal-ish parts bark perlite and sphagnum. In clear pots with holes OR terracotta (that they can adhere to if I dont plan on ever up potting again)
To be direct your roots are rotting because they cannot breathe in dense media or confined pots with little to no airflow. Most orchids are epiphytic and require much higher airflow especially around the roots like they get in nature. The wetter or more humid the conditions the more airflow they will require. In the future I would suggest changing the media of recent purchases to a fresh healthy media that hasn’t degraded and using pots or containers that allow a faster drying and airflow around the roots like mesh pots.