Are these good or bad roots????

[orchidea]

I have repotted few Phals in the past few weeks. Now I need HELP!!!!!
I see a pattern now.... When I look at the old roots, some of them appear bad and mushy (rotten almost) at the top and continue into a good looking healthy root after that. How could this be???????
I cut them anyway assuming that the plant can't get anything up this root through the rotten part....
Please tell me that I am not cutting good roots ..............
The pictures are taken with the roots tops up.......
Thanks....

[Andrew]

Water and nutrients are transported through the centre of the roots. The centre of the root can still be intact even though the surrounding root tissue is dead which mean that the roots beyond the point of infection can still take up and transport water and nutrients to the plant which is why you'll find the tips of the roots often continue to grow happily even though the root itself appears dead. On the flipside the infection in the root can spread to the rest of the plant so it's better to remove the infected tissue and forego any benefits the rest of the root may be providing to the plant. It's a bit like amutating a gengrenous limb. You might still be able to use the limb while the tissue is dying but it's better to remove it altogether before it spreads to more vital parts of the body.

[mehitabel]

Those aren't great roots, that's for sure. Whether to cut that kind of root depends on what other roots there are. You just can't avoid having to make judgment calls on things like this. As Andrew pointed out, ya pays ya money and ya makes ya choice.

I used to cut a lot more than I do now. I've had better luck since I began to cut less, but if there are plenty of newer good roots around, a couple of bad ones cut off won't matter. See, there's that judgment thing again. And sometimes when I don't cut not-so-good roots, they rot away anyway. I'm afraid there's no certainty

If your plant had other, better roots, it should be fine. If all it had were roots likes the ones you cut, and you cut only some of them, it should still be fine.

It won't hurt your plant to bag up the leaves if you think it doesn't have enough root mass to support the leaves it has. Just put a plastic baggie over the leaves on each side of the crown and leave the bags on for about 6 weeks. In my experience, 6 weeks is long enough for good new roots to get going. established.

In my own orchid adventures, I've found that big plants usually get themselves going fairly quicklly, even if the roots aren't the best. It's the fragile little plants, expecially the ones with weak seedling roots that are most likely to expire in my hands.

[orchidea]

Thank you both so much for such useful stuff.
But I am not sure about the bag. What does it do??? I am sorry
I have one orchid (the oncidium) that didn't have any but two tiny roots left, so I was shoring it to the bamboo sticks, while I was pretty much saying "good-bye" to it
Maybe I should put the bags over it??????
It will look real sad....

[bill_asia]

The roots look to have suffered from overwatering or lack of air. That can happen if the medium has not been changed recently or if there are dead areas in the medium that do not have a chance to dry between watering. With phals, I always let my medium dry out completely between soakings with daily spray on the leaves and exposed roots only. I soak them only once the moss/medium is completely dry. If it was me, I would take this plant out of the pot, clean the roots/plant and allow the roots to dry. Then with a sterile cutter, remove the obvious bad roots. Allow the cuts to dry for a day or so to insure they heal completely before repotting. If you live in a very low humidity area, spray the plant (not roots) twice daily and keep the plant near moving air to allow the excess moisture to evaporate. Fungus infections can easily attack phals if excess water if left on the leaves for even a short time. I always run my fans on full for 1 hour after watering.

[mehitabel]

Hi, orchidea. The baggies create a humid atmosphere for the leaves.

When a plant has lots many or most of it's roots, it can't supply enough water to the leaves to keep them alive. The leaves transpire and lose moisture. So essentially, a race is on to grow new roots before the last leaf goes.

Putting baggies over the leaves (or putting it into a humidity dome if you have one)-- what this does is supply enough humidity around the leaves to slow down the withering and death of leaves while the plant is growing new roots. The plant is more likely to survive the rootless period, and will have more leaves to be getting on after it gets roots. I have found this makes a huge difference, and really recommend it.

I like to put one bag on each side of the phal. This lets you leave the crown of the phal open to air. But you could use one baggie over the whole plant. A little moist sphag on top of the medium (in addition to the baggies( also helps keep the leaf area moist.

A humidity dome is one of those clear plastic hats they put over seedlings to supply humidity to the air.

[mehitabel]

Originally Posted by orchidea

I have one orchid (the oncidium) that didn't have any but two tiny roots left, so I was shoring it to the bamboo sticks, while I was pretty much saying "good-bye" to it
Maybe I should put the bags over it??????
It will look real sad....

I'll admit it's harder to get all oncid leaves into a baggie. In that case I would make a little humidity tent for it out of plastic wrap. You want it a little loose so that air can creep in and out.

Well, maybe it will look sad. But after about 6 weeks, you take off the bags and find it isn't looking so droopy any more. You can see it's better.

And BTW, a few threads of moist sphag on top of the medium helps an oncid form new roots. Tuck them in around the newest pseudobulbs. The new roots love the sphag and grow right into it.

[orchidea]

Thank you so much Mehitabel.
I'll definitly put bags over the ones I am trying to save tonight.
It's so dry here in Colorado. We are lucky to have 30-40% humidity here.
I am hanging moist rags near my orchids, stagger trays with pebbels and misting my plants all the time (well, mornings and evenings). I ordered hygrometers yesterday. I don't think I should worry about fungus with such dry air ... Any drop of water disappers in seconds, day or night.....
I think the bags will definitly help especially in my conditions.
I'll keep my and report to you the results.
Thank you for trying to help!!!!!!

[mehitabel]

I've got my fingers crossed for you, orchidea. And BTW, root hormones work! You can buy a bottle of powdered root hormone for app $7 or so in the big box stores. Dip any cut ends of roots or cut stem in the root powder.

Superthrive also contains a root hormone, you use it as an additive in your watering. This would help your oncid with the tiny roots.

Low humidity is a curse here, too. Probably anywhere indoors except paradise. In winter with the furnace going, the ambient humidity is app 10%. In summer, with the a/c on, it's also low, even when the humidity outside is very high. Humidity around the leaf area of plants that are on humidity trays is higher, of course. (And I can put my non-blooming ones outside in summer, when it's plenty humid out there).

And in the great minds run in the same circles dept, I've done the wet rag thing myself from time to time. Trick I learned growing up in AZ

And if it's any comfort, I learned everything the hard way, by killing orchids.

Good luck.