How to get new roots to grow on Paphs?
 

Hi this maybe should be in the beginner section but I wanted to be sure that the Paph experts saw my plea!

I bought a Paph armeniacum x jackii in flower at RHS Tatton in July 2009. The plant has sat, hardly growing at all, although a new fan was starting to form. In the last month the flowered fan's leaves were going brown, one at a time. When I went to water it the other day, I accidentally knocked it over, and the crown came away from the roots. The roots in the pot were brown and mushy.

All that is attached to the crown is two roots about an inch long, without their velamin. I have removed the flowered fan's remaining leaves from the crown, and am supporting the plant so that what is left of the roots are in water.

My questions are

• can this plant be saved? (It was an expensive plant for me)
• Is there are way to get roots to grow on the crown's stump?
• Is water culture viable for more than the short term?
• what do I do next?

Please Help if you can

Thanks

Have been in the same situation and I put mine in semi hydro for a while and did save it but I am still struggling with it ....I have one root on it now and had it in rice hulls and just yesterday the same thing happened ...but this time the clump of ten small fans fell apart and the thre biggest had new roots emerging.

Th clump had grown from the old center of th eoriginal fan and it had finaly died off ....I am happy with three new small paphs each with a new root growing right now....we will see how they do now.

if you 'plant' the crown in some moist fine medium for paphs, and water to keep moist, it might make new roots....gl

There's an article on Orchid Digest a year or so ago on rooting paphs in pure perlite and S/H.

I have success in rooting paphs in fresh sphag moss in clay pots. As long as you keep the moss moist, water with low TDS water and don't let the moss die. Good luck with your plant! That is a beautiful cross :) (It's name Paph Armanijack, by the way)

In similar situations, I have potted into a very small pot in fresh fine bark mix that has been soaked overnight in RO water.
It is critical to prevent the plant from moving relative to the pot. Bamboo skewers can be used as splints to hold it in place.
Place the whole plant, pot and all, into a reclosable plastic bag and seal it shut. In 30 days, open the bag and then seal it again. In another 30, the plant will either have started growing or it will have died.
Of course, the best way to learn growing is to kill expensive plants...

It probably can be saved. Get it out of that water, now! Pot in loose sphagnum, but tie it to a stake if necessary so it doesn't flop around. Use live sphagnum if you can get it. High humidity. Always moist, not wet.

I'll second the "moist not wet" sphagnum recommendation. Do try the resealable bag for constant humidity and constant moisture in the pot.

Thanks, everybody, it's so nice to know that there is some hope!!!

I'm not sure about sphagnum moss availability here, but I'll definitely try the plastic bag method, with fine bark. I have a never ending supply of rainwater, so low TDS is not a problem. Do any of you recommend rooting hormones?

In spring I found 2 of my 4 mottled leaf paphs had lost most of their roots. Each only had about an inch of root.

They both had new fans forming like yours.

What I did is put them in the tiniest pots I had (7cm) with fine bark. Over the summer the bark was drying in 3 days and I could water quite often. Now it's arround 5 days but I still try and water as soon as they are dry.

That small bit of root was enough to keep them going and soon I saw root growth from the new fans and the fans got growing again.

As we are moving into cooler weather now I would advise keeping them in a warm spot to encourage growth.

"As we are moving into cooler weather now I would advise keeping them in a warm spot to encourage growth."

I was wondering about that - the room temp is hovering around 18 min at the mo. My only local source of heat is an unregulated propagator base. (radiators are only on for a short while each night at the moment)

For those of you interested this is the plant and what I've done with it since I read all your great advice. It's also in a plastic bag in an east facing window