Using s/h to revive a rootless phal?

[AThoele]

Hi! As some of you may already know, I have two phals (which are from my wedding so they have a lot of sentimental value) that suffered from severe root rot and now have basically no roots left. One is hanging on to its last leaf and the other has no leaves, although there is a new one that started coming in before I discovered the rotten roots. I read on another website that s/h might be a good way to keep these two from completely dying and to get them to actually grow some new roots, but I wanted to see what the experts here had to say first! Has anyone done this? Any tips?

Thanks!

[Blueszz]

Hello Amanda,
might work, but I always read that the best time to switch to s/h when the plant is putting out new roots. Existing roots might dy in s/h. I experienced this myself. I used a plant with a great root ball and almost every root showed rot were they emerged from the stem, they were barely attached to the plant. I switched back to bark in March and it's still struggling. I'm waiting for a new set of good roots as the ones that barely survived s/h have permanent damage.
I don't think s/h is a quick fix, however when your plant currently is pushing out new roots, it will be able to hydrate better, even when it doesn't have many roots.
When I tried to switch to s/h I noticed the leaves got firmer, even when the plant before showed no signs of being dehydrated.

Nicole

[nenella]

Hi Amanda, I agree with Nicole about when to put into s/h. I would try spagh & bag first to promote the root growth then once it gets going you can try s/h.
my I cent worth...Try putting the rootless plant into a clear pot , & the damp sphag outside the pot but all of it into a bag. Make sure you 'monitor" the dampness ...even blow(into the bag) / or leave bag open from time to time if it 'smells' damp .. Be warned it can take up to a year to get a 'healthy plant back' It's a trial & error thing with the Key issue being regular monitoring the humidity (not tooo dry not too humid where it 'smells'
hope this helps! good luck!

[Ray]

As the inventor of semi-hydro culture, I can pretty much agree with the posts, so far.

The key to getting those plants recovered is the keep them warm and shady, and in a saturated (100% RH) environment. Plants naturally "want to" survive, but desiccation is a killer, and with no roots, they cannot take up water. By keeping them in a saturated environment, they will sometimes hang on long enough to grow new roots.

[AThoele]

Ok, thanks for the advice. I guess the article I read was a little off. I'll give sphag and bag another shot. The reason I stopped my first attempt was that one of the plants started growing white mold. Is there something I can do to keep this from happening, or at least lessen the chances?

Thanks, again!

[Ray]

Mold grows on dead, decomposing organic matter. If you're getting mold, it means you have not sufficiently cleaned up the necrotic tissue or removed the potting medium before "bagging" it.

I don't know that I'd refer to it as "using S/H to revive a plant", but sometimes when I have run into a situation in which a plant is totally rootless, I will:

• Soak the plant for about 30 minutes or more in a gallon of tepid water containing a capful of K-L-N.
• Set it on top of a pre-saturated S/H pot.
• Put the whole thing into a bag.

The medium provides the moisture source for maxxing out the humidity, and once the plant starts growing roots, they go straight in and are automatically established.

[nutgirl]

I had a sad phal, 1 leaf, no roots. I put it in sphag n bag and it grew a couple of root nubbins but didn't want to thrive. I read on the forum about water culture so I tried that. (search "water culture") The root grew more but was not real happy. A new leaf started but died. The root was about 1/2" long and out of curiousity I put it in a small cup of leca. Wow! It's going crazy, 2 new leaves, new roots.

I don't know which of these methods was the most successful or whether it was just a matter of timing or what. Just don't be afraid to try something else if things aren't working, these orchids are tough little things.

Maureen

[Rivka]

to the OP, did this ever work for you or what did?

i have a all my plants in s/h and i have had a phal doing bad since long before the switch. it was one of hte only ones that was not putting pout new roots when i changed it over, but i figured i would try since it was doing so very bad already. the rest of my many phals are so good in comparison i didn't know what to think.

well it continued to go down hill and has not put out new roots, most all of the others have been a flurry of new s/h roots.

so i took it out the other day to get a good look at things and found what was mostly to be expected, zero good roots. all the fleshy part just fell off in my hand or had already come off in the leca.

so i carefully and throughly stripped it all off (i left the sturdy centers of the roots, i figure in the future they can help to anchor this plant when it comes time to plant it back up in leca, is this ok? they are dry clear and not discolored in any way)

next i grabbed a large shallow covered togo container big enough to lay the plant down on its side and kinda space out he leaves so they get air. i laid the plant down ontop of about 2 layers of leca, filled it with water to cover the bottom layer of leca but staying off the plant and mostly rested the lid back on. i not have it sitting in a medium lit, shaded windowsill.

this seems to be a pretty stable version of the spag and bag technique with what i had in the house and the water is easy to monitor.

anything else you folks think i should do or stop doing? i figure this is its last chance, im not attached to the phal more than im attached to any orchid, it is a semi recent addition.
guess i wait and see now.

[Silla--glamour]

Hi allow me to introduce, iam silla. Let me sound off my advise for you bro, very sentimental and memorable, i can understand that, now we can only hope your root rot would stop. Orchid shouldn't be shower additional love and care, over caring might result in unforseen problem as such. As long as your phal still have 1cm of root it should still struggle for survival. I strongly suggest you do a tissue culture immediately to preserve it's genus, meaning you can abstract it's tissue for cloning baby seedling out of them so in case your phal cannot make it, it got a head start new live with it's baby from this sentimental phal

visit here to study my experience with orchid surviving story.

Cattleya has strong survival habitat.

[Ray]

Rivka - WARMTH is key. If you can keep the plant really warm (90's are not too warm) and shady, it will recover nicely. If that's not possible, consider bottom heat.

Phals in S/H culture succumb most often to being kept too cool. Don't forget that there is evaporative coling from the medium.