Aerangis biloba roots withering.

[Galahtoo]

I have just recently purchased a Aerangis biloba, mounted with spagnum on a plank(cedar?). All ariels have started to wither. I mist several times daily, fertilize weakly/weakly. By morning spagnum is bone dry. Hanging in a window facing North getting ambiant light but no direct light.
Help! Am I watering too much? Bad water quality(boiled tap)?

[tom499]

Boiling tap water will concentrate the mineral content, and can be worse.

BUT As far as I know Aerangis arent too fussy on water.

Where do you keep the plant? Mounted plants need high humidity 24/7 which is what the plant will have been used to. Its aerial roots arent taking in enough moisture so will wither.

Try and keep it in a more humid spot, the plant should put out more roots over the medium so it should be ok.

See what others think.

[kmarch]

A few thoughts:

1) Aerangis are Angracoid orchids many of which are found on the island of Madagascar. They like fairly high light and high humidity

2) If you are in the northern hemisphere. a northern exposure will not be bright enough. Perhaps you could update your member profile to indicate you general location. It will be helpful in giving you useful advice on the culture of your orchid.

3) Boiled water is not necessary for orchids and as Tom suggests may be concentrating minerals, salts, or other things present in your water. If your tap water is good it should be good enough. If you don't feel tap water is good enough collect and use rain water. Out of curiosity, where did you hear that you should boil the water you use on your orchid?

4) You say that the sphagnum on your mount dries out completely overnight. As Tom suggests, this indicates your humidity level is far too low for this plant. Aeranges are humidity lovign plants and I would recommend 50-60% relative humidity or higher (probably higher) for this orchid. There are a number of ways you can raise the humidity in the place you are growing it: using a small edwardian case, humidity trays (though this option may not raise the humidity enough), or other options.

5) If you are fertilizing, I would stop for the time being. Damaged or stressed roots and fertilizer are not a good combination in my opinion.

Good luck. Let us know of you have more questions.

[Ellen]

Most basic info on Aerangis has already been covered, but I will add that if you bought the plant from Oak Hill (sounds like them, with the cedar shingle mount), they typically put way too much moss on the mount, very tightly packed so that one of two things happens: 1) the outside dries out, then you water again even though the inside of the moss ball is still soaked - roots rot; 2) if the mount has dried out completely, you water and the outside gets wet while the inside stays bone dry - roots dry out . I have bought quite a few mounted plants from Oak Hill, and my experience is that even in the best of circumstances the roots don't particularly like the cedar shingles, and just grow in the moss or stick out into the air instead of adhering to the mount. What I would do is remove the plant from the mount, remove most of the moss, and assess the condition of the roots. Then I would remount the plant on cork or some other medium that roots will grab. An Aerangis biloba is a relatively big tough plant, and will not suffer from low humidity if the roots are healthy and adequately watered on a regular basis. Good luck with your new plant - Aerangis are some of my favorite orchids and are easy to bloom once they get going.

[Galahtoo]

Ok. I am in Wisconsin and have only have a Northern exposure window to work with. Will be soon moving to Seattle WA. Hopefully the orchid can wait for another two weeks. I bought a glass enclosure for it to keep the humidity up but worry about the air circulation. I also loosened the spagnum and found the inside very dry so rot was not a problem in the first place. Hopefully I will see some improvement soon. I was boiling water to evaporate the chlorine in the tap. Is the small amount of chlorine in tap ok?

[jerrymeola]

Your problem is your watering method.

I hate it every time I hear the word "misting".

Orchids need a lot of water and should be soaked at every watering. Plants that need to dry out between waterings can then be allowed to dry, but if you truly mist, the water never gets to the roots and effectively you are never watering the plant.

Take your orchid and put it in a bucket of water for a half hour each week here in Florida with our 100 degree temps I can get several days before the moss drys. I have several hundred in my personal collection and mount a couple of thousand every year but they need a lot of water. By soaking the plant in water, the orchid can drink as much water as it wants and when you remove it the excess water drains right off.

An advantage of mounting is that it is almost impossible to over water so do not underwater.

[kmarch]

The amount of chlorine found in tap water will not harm the vast majority of orchids. Boiling the water is not necessary. For more than 10 years now I have watered my orchids (mostly Paphs and Phrags) straight from the tap.

Jerry makes a good point about misting the orchid. Misting is not really watering the orchid, it should be soaked as Jerry suggests.