Dealing with rescued phalaenopsis - Orchid Board

greenochre · #1 12-30-2023, 08:24 PM

I sometimes buy 'surprise packs' with sad plants, and sometimes there are phals, always with degraded substrate and many rotten roots.

Though I manage to save almost all the other plants, I haven't had any luck with phals, and it always happens the same way - I cut rotten roots, repot, orchid seems to get better, even starting growing new leaves or roots for a month or two, and then root rot is back again and I lost it.

I tried seramis, SH with LECA, a bag with sphagnum, pure bark, DIY mix of bark, lava rock and sphagnum - all with the same result. And the more I tried to figure out what I was doing wrong, the more confused I got because there is so much controversial info.

1. Dealing with the root rot. Almost all guides tell you should cut all the black/brown/mushy roots, otherwise the infection will spread again. But from what I know about plants in general, root rot is caused by fungi which aren't actually pathogens, but a normal part of any substrate and can't be eliminated. Healthy plants have good immunity so they aren't affected, but if a plant is damaged it becomes vulnerable to it. Nobody says you should find and cut all of the rotten roots with any other plant, instead, you should concentrate on providing the right environment, and then the plant will be able to fight the fungi by itself.

And as far as I know, no plant has any roots for a lifetime - old roots inevitably die and new roots grow, that's how plants work. If an infection from an old dying root always spread, no plants would survive.

Also, if black/brown/mushy roots are so dead, how come pretty often there is a perfectly healthy green root growing from the old mushy one?

How can I determine which roots to cut and which to leave? Also, should I apply any fungicide?

2. Flower stems. Some folks say if you have an orchid in a bad state, and it has a flower spike, you should cut it to promote the growth of roots and leaves. Others claim that flower stems work as a storage for useful elements, and also any wound is a stress, so you shouldn't cut them.
How can I decide?

3. Moving or not moving?
I currently have three rescued phals - two I got about 2 month ago, they have flower spikes growing, but about a week ago I spotted root rot (AGAIN). I decided to switch to mounts - my mounted aerangis is doing much better, and at least I'll be able to check roots every day and see what's going on. The third one I got a few days ago and mounted too. But I usually soak my mounted orchids 1-2 times a week + mist every day. I'm not sure only misting will be enough. But to soak them I'll have to move them, and I heard any movement is stressful and can be damaging.
What should I do?

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Some details about phals I currently have. These two are those which I got two months ago and mounted recently. They're in poor shape, and dehydrated, and both have new flower spikes growing. One is growing new root, and the second one (on the clay pot) had a growing root, but unfortunately, it stalled.

Besides this yesterday I found out I have a thrips outbreak (first time in my life aaah), and these two babies are affected too. I usually use beneficial bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis) as a prophylactic treatment (they kill insects, but don't do any harm to the plants, and I never have spider mites after I started using them), but last moths I run out of the treatment, and probably that's why goddamn thrips are pretty much on every plant. fuck.

The third one I got recently, it's currently in bloom, and it was in much better shape than the previous two, and had several new roots growing, but still some rotten roots. I decided not to cut anything but a few that were more like slime, and leave all others. Then I mounted it on wood I bought a while ago in an aquarium store for wabicusa (which didn't work out).

If some roots are dead, will they just fall away naturally? Or should I cut some more? Should I cut flower spikes or not?

I sprayed and watered all my plants with a solution of dish soap and neem oil (1 teaspoon per liter of each), also I ordered kelpak (I have dry kelp powder but from what I have read here, kelpak is much better) and bacterial treatment. What else should I do?