Do these roots look OK to you guys? she's a grocery store rescue and I had to trim some gross, stringy roots out of the pure sphagnum it was in. i've put her in a mix of perlite, bark, and some sphagnum for retention, and i've decided not to water because the sphagnum was moist and affected roots looked rotted. I'm also considering cutting down the spike to streamline recovery. Any tips welcome, this is my first ever orchid
From my very short time as a plant dad I assume this is an orchid. As long as roots are green they are good! Even if they are silver they only need water. Yellow and brown are bad.
3 J'aime yes, i said it was an orchid lol. i know about the silver/green thing, i'm asking because some of them were rotted and i wasn't sure if i removed all of it
1 j'aime Oh my apologies!
0 J'aime I think I was just excited to share something I learned 💚
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Soak the roots in a glass of hydrogen peroxide for 10-20 minutes to kill any lingering bacteria from the previously rotted roots. It’ll also revive the roots a bit to help you see which ones still have some life to them. You and snip off any ends that’re still looking withered afterward. My best advice would be to skip the perlite and moss entirely, and pick up a bag of orchid bark instead. Orchids are epiphytes, which means they naturally grow on trees, not in soil, so they’re very prone to rot when potted in anything other than orchid bark. The brand I’ve used and loved for these is Espoma’s Organic Orchid Bark Mix. Typically runs for about $7-9 a bag, and I usually can find it at my local hardware store or nursery. Hope this helps! 😊
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Thank you for your tip
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