My new possessions. Miltoniopsis, oncidium, and paph

[Irisha99]

Hi, guys. Here are my three newcomers I just received from amazon. I was so excited but upon removing them out of their containers, I think my excitement is nearly gone. Path has these blackened roots that I am not sure about. Correct me if I am wrong but I don’t see a single live root and even the leaves are all wrinkled and the stem has some black rot too. Or is this normal for this orchid to have these brown black roots?
Miltoniopsis is in a pretty bad condition too but has a few new roots it seems. Oncidium has a few white, seemingly live-looking roots. Never had oncidiums so don’t know what good roots look like. What do you think? Does any of them stand a chance? Thanks

[Irisha99]

The other two plants. Oops I mixed up the tags for them...

[aliceinwl]

I'm a newbie, but I had some grocery store buys with similar root health when I went to repot. I cut off all the roots that I was sure were dead (squishy, I left anything firm), staked the plant if it didn't have enough roots to support it, and got it into good media. None of the plants missed a beat. I misted the rootless wonders heavily every morning until they re-rooted. I'm not sure if the misting was necessary, but it didn't seem to hurt.

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[Irisha99]

Thanks Alice. I had such poor luck with my purchases from many different sellers that seeing this upsets and dissapointms time tremendously. I don’t want to deal with rootless plants. So many people leave them great reviews and I have to get something that looks like this. Very sad and unfair. My thanks for your words of inspiration

[chantrelle]

I’m too a beginner but don’t beleive that your Miltoniopsis and Oncidium are in a bad shape. The pseudobulbs appear to be plumbed that is good. As for the wrinkled leaves, a lot of Oncidium have sensitive leaves it should return to normal after a few weeks of being repotted. However, some Oncidium do that very often if they are not enough humidity auround.

About the root they get stained by the potting medium the were in. What were they potted in ? I can see that your Miltoniopsis has some rotted roots but I see good one too.

Cleaning it well for a starter will help you knowing which one are good. What I do, as I’m also learning, I’m only getting ride of the roots that come a part easily with a good running water cleaning and cut of what I’m sure of.

Hope that was a little helpfull until someone with more experience come along



There are rotten roots but as

[Irisha99]

Thank you, chantrelle. They were potted in bark. It was wet, dripping wet. I let the plants air dry through the night to look at the roots in the morning. All the roots are dry. None have plumpness/firmness. I don’t feel any of them are live. It’s a mop of parchment. They even make this sound of dry paper when you feel them

[Leafmite]

I do not know anything about reviving Paphs but Oncidiums usually recover easily. In the days when I collected (rootless) Oncidiums, I used red lava rock as a medium (the internet had not yet become a marketplace and there was nothing else usable where I lived) so I would cut off all the dead roots, stake the Oncidium firmly on top of the rock and then keep the medium damp and try not to move it until new roots grew (often after a new growth began). It is important not to get water on the actual orchid as this could cause rot for an orchid in such a stressed condition.
Good luck!

[aliceinwl]

I'd be pretty miffed in your situation too! I bought my grocery store orchids knowing that they probably or definitely had root issues, but I'd expect better ordering from a dealer.

I've repotted all but one of my paphs into a fine bark mix and all are doing well so far. One was kind of wilty when it initially came home, but I was careful to keep it moist, but not wet like it had been. It slowly firmed up. When I went to repot it some months later, it had two new good roots but the rest looked like yours so I think it was in similar shape at the time of purchase.

Humidity by me is pretty low so the fine bark seems to be working well. I went with 5 parts fine monterey pine bark, 1 part perlite, and one part charcoal for all my orchids. I'm may try more tailored formulations next time I have to repot now that I've learned more.

[Dollythehun]

Before you do any cutting, let the older growers respond. From the pictures, I would second Chantrelles opinion. It won't hurt to wait a bit.

[katrina]

I would not cut off all the roots. Sometimes the velamin ( spongy layer) can die off but the stringy root center still has some ability to transport water to the plant. When I have something like this, I gently slide the dead spongy layer off the roots but leave the "strings " and pot it up. At the very least, the " strings " will provide stability until new roots grow in. You will get new roots as new growths develop but, typically, the older growths won't make new roots.