Root Problem

[orchid-eric]

Something is up with some of my roots. They grow very well. Nice and plump, bright white with green tips. Then on some, the root tips die. They turn black and the root starts to die. Sometimes the whole root and other times just a little of it. This happens with different genera not just one. There's nothing wrong with the orchid plants themselves. I've wondered if it was my water. I live in the country so we have well water. It's very soft and has a ph of 7.0. I don't remember having this problem when I lived in the city. What do you think?
Thanks!

[Bud]

Start collecting rain water. I got my large container from Home Depot and connected it to the drain pipe on the side of my building outside my kitchen window. I have only but few plants for now so the barrel is still full till the next downpour...

[Lars Kurth]

Eric,

can you post a picture?

I have had a similar issue and it certainly seems to be some disease even though people on the forum thought it probably wasn't (see Bad winter: Sudden root loss for pictures). The bottom line for me is that this is spreading and when the issue hits the rhizome or the stem of monipodial orchids it travels up the stem or through the rhizome and eventually kills the plant. The plant looks fine at this stage, but eventually it starts loosing leaves and its vigour is affected. I dissected an affected plant - in this case a Renanthera (which I had two of). I found a) where the root issue hits the stem, the disease gets into the stem (grey or light brown cells in the cross -section), b) the issue moves slowly upwards.

I am not quite sure what it is in my case, but it could be Rhizoctonia (which is a little odd for plants that are not potted as Rhizoctonia is normally associated with decaying substrate) which clearly isn't an issue for mounted plants.

There are only a few diseases which can start infecting roots: Pythium and Phytophthora (Black rot) and Rhizoctonia.

[orchid-eric]

My plants are mounted so I knew it shouldn't be rot. It was happening with B. little stars and a Catt. hybrid. It's not constant. I have treated with fungicide and I think it helps but not sure. It seems to come and go. Very weird.

[tucker85]

You say that your water is very soft. It's not going through a water softener is it? They can be very bad for orchids because of the salt.

I think that several other things could contribute to that. Low humidity can cause aerial roots to shrivle up.

Sometimes the roots just stop growing and the tip gets kind of brownish because it's old.

Too much fertilizer can cause root tip burn.

Do you use any seaweed products? Using a product like Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed can help to keep roots healthy and growing well.

[orchid-eric]

No, straight out of the ground.