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I rescued a beautiful phal orchid from the clearance rack at Lowe’s
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Heather

I rescued a beautiful phal orchid from the clearance rack at Lowe’s but am wondering if there is any real chance for survival. The plant actually has 3 flowering spikes so I was surprised to see it discounted until I got home and inspected its roots through the pot. They were nothing but a yellow slimy mess. The leaves are severely dehydrated but the potting media was wet so clearly the roots are not taking up needed moisture. I committed what most would consider the cardinal sin of repotting while blooming but my fear was it would be far too gone had I waited to try and rescue it after the blooms fell. The photo shows the remaining “heathy” roots. Sadly, I didn’t even have to prune the dead ones away as they disintegrated into mush when the plant was removed from the pot. It does appear to have a couple of new healthy short roots and two long air roots but those are pretty shriveled. My plan is to just keep it misted to encourage more root growth but not allow additional rot but I’m not sure if there is anything else I can do. I’ve never tried this level of “first aid” so suggestions are welcome. I’ve seen conflicting information on if I should or should not fertilize it. So if anyone has some insight I’d love to get your thoughts.

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  1. MeasomerPi

    Good morning. Don’t you love how tough these plants are? The remaining roots don’t look too bad to me. I don’t think you need to worry about misting, and would try to let it get into a wet dry cycle. In my experience, phals usually stop vegetative growth when blooming, so you might have a little wait until new roots show up. Did the blooms survive? If so, consider removing them. The plant diverts a lot of resources to the flowers so it just exacerbates any issues with dehydration. With regard to fertilizer, I would wait until it begins active growth. Right now, it is in recovery mode so it needs to stabilize. The media looks very wet in the photo. Does the vase have drainage?

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    • Heather

      I should have specified that all of my phalaenopsis are grown bare root
hence the daily misting. They sit on top of growth medium and it is kept wet to allow for evaporation and raised humidity but it doesn’t come up to the top so roots are dry unless misted. It seems to be slowly recovering. So far, no additional root loss and leaves are regaining some structure. I haven’t clipped the spikes because the flowers are doing so well. I know I should as it would definitely help with recovery but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to do it yet. 😜. I’ve never had one with three spikes which is part of the reason I purchased it.

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