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I’ve posted about this nuisance before but wanted to ask to see if I… | Pests, diseases and problems | Planta community

Miranda

I’ve posted about this nuisance before but wanted to ask to see if I can find out what I did wrong. I repotted this beauty because it had been a year and a half and throughout that time hadn’t bloomed again after the initial bloom at purchase. Once I repotted all the roots shriveled up despite watering it. Now I am left with one root and a few places where I see roots are starting to form, see picture below for set up now. I’ve removed it from its medium because clearly that wasn’t working (clear pot with holes to allow air flow and miracle mix of the orchid variety). I stopped putting the clear pot in the decorative pot because I thought lack of sunlight on the roots and bark might be part of the problem… at this point i am not sure if it’s a lost cause or if there is something else I can try to fix it.

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8 comments

  1. Jneyman

    I just lost an orchid over the same situation. Sending you positive vibes!!!

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  2. Riho

    Same thing happened with four of my orchids, and I’m in the same situation as you. I lost two but I have two more that kind of survived. I’m no expert at all, but after watching so many orchid resurrecting YouTube’s and trying everything and getting confused lol, I’m doing this now: - no soil - water in vase but only hitting some roots (kinda aerial style) - mist the roots when leaves look wrinkled (but never the leaves to avoid water in crown) This worked the best. New roots and leaves came out! I have over dozen orchids but I noticed that they were all potted too tightly with barks and moss and all of them had rotting roots because the soil stayed wet for too long. I was also giving it too much fertilizer thinking it will recover, but I heard some experts say fertilize when the leaves are growing, not when it’s weak or flowering. Your orchid still has pretty good new green roots coming out so I’m sure it’ll survive! Good luck:)

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    • Miranda

      Thank you. I may just let it chill like this for the time being and just mist the roots to get them water. I thought I was supposed to mist the leaves! 😞 that might be my problem for the leaves developing holes

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    • Riho

      Yeah, I think that sounds good. I guess orchids naturally grow on trees, so maybe it’s unnatural for them to be potted in soil:/ I was misting the leaves too, because I read that somewhere. I live in Arizona so it’s super dry, so I used to mist very frequently and probably water in crown. I stopped misting and switched to having humidifiers nearby and all my orchids are doing better.

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    • Miranda

      Do you just put water in the glass? I have seen some people talk about putting rocks or leca?

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  3. Riho

    I tried leca a few times but I found it to be more maintenance (water gets dirtier, harder to clean, roots get damaged if you’re not careful when moving it, etc) so I stopped doing it. I also kinda like looking at the roots now more than the leaves and flowers because I notice more growth, and those roots are pretty cute, so I enjoy the glass jar right now.

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    • Riho

      Forgot to answer your question. I do two methods right now: 1) Little water at the bottom, low enough that it’ll evaporate in less than a week, soak or mist the whole roots every 5-7 days 2) Water at the bottom, low enough so it’s not too close to the leaves change water every week or so. Nothing too strict. I look at it every few days to see how it’s doing.

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    • Miranda

      Sounds easy enough! Thank you!

      1 like