What does a healthy root look like on a phal?
 

What does a healthly root look like that is outside the pot? how about one that is inside the "dirt"?

I'm an nervously nellie about my birds and I afraid it's going to rub off on my orchids. :)

I'll show you instead. Pics here....

I was curious about that too.. except im not too worried about birds lol. Recently my baby vandas root tips have been looking this this. And i'm pretty sure that's not healthy, the person above has pretty healthy ones

Phal. roots are light silvery gray when dry and deep green when wet....the roots deep inside the mix will also be deep green, if you are using a clear pot then you can monitor the roots and also let the sun nourish it....healthy roots grow pencil thick and turn spongy dark brown to black when rotting....

Roots can be other colours if stained by the medium. Ones inside the medium can sometimes be pale yellow if no light has got to them, they need light to be green. I've had them turn brown from staining of the medium, if they are firm then they are good, but mushy brown is bad.

Katsols it looks like the root with the jagged edge has been munched by something :( The other looks fine, the different colour on the tip is normal as they grow.

Some Phals have gray roots with reddish brown tips. Any color is fine as long as the root isn't mushy is a good root.

Brooke

Thank you, i try to disturb the roots as less as possible, i suppose it's not so bad since my little vanda is slowly growing out a new leaf.
I bought it from hawaii in sep. so it pretty much came like that in the mail.

The roots on the surface on two of my phals are dark brown and grey in places, but are quite hard, almost crusty to touch, so am guessing they are just like that with age and medium staining?

The other thing that can stain roots is iron in the water. Our water here is quite high in iron content and we see the brown staining quite a bit.

Look at my thread for Phal. Candlelit Dreams 'Delightful', dated 3/4/13 @ 4:36pm. Post #7 shows a photo of good healthy roots that I put up for one of the other members.