Root rot or Ant problem?

[satishsherikar]

I repotted my phal yesterday, as I saw that some of the roots were rotting and turned from nice thick ones to thin ones like a string. Seemed to me that there are still few healthy roots, but I saw quite a few big ants inside and was surprised. I just repotted this phal about a month ago with cocoa peat, charcoal, bark mix. I now got rid of the peat so that once in couple of weeks can drown some of these pests. I hope she recovers, esp since I saw a very tiny purple spike growth. Hopefully she will recover and bloom with the fresh spike in a few weeks time.

I've a dendrobium with 3 bulbs. One of the bulbs (the smallest) had only 1 leaf on him, and unfortunately, the leaf turned yellow and withered. The other bulb has miniature flowers on it.

Can you folks what went wrong with these 2 plants?

[evagentry]

Hello, since no one answered you I will venture my ideas,your Phal sounds like it should recover, but you need to be careful not to water too much, as for the ants, that is something new! I don't think they hurt roots, but they do transfer aphids and scale, so maybe move the phal where the can't get to it.Your Dendrobium is probably just dropping a leaf normally, they drop from the smallest canes first as these leaves are the oldest. I hope this helped some.

[satishsherikar]

Thanks evagentry! I hope my phal recovers (as she was my first orchid). The dedrobium is still like a very small pseudo bulb (the bulb which lost its leaf). The other 2 are like nice big canes. Hope this guy is doing OK and not in trouble.

[11Orchid126]

You might try some soapy water when you drench the medium. Insects don't like soap so the ants might decide to move elsewhere. I also heard that soaking the pot and medium for a half hour might drown them or chase them out.