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I have an orchid I bought recently at the grocery store, and it's been blooming and doing well, but the roots don't look too great. It seems to me to be extremely rootbound and desperately needs repotted. I've read that I'm supposed to let all the blooms fall off, then wait until the end of the spike starts to dry up a bit (so that I know it's not going to bloom again or produce a Keiki or something), then cut the spike down. After all this is done, THEN I'm supposed to repot. Well I've been waiting and enjoying my blooms, but now we are down to the last bloom and the roots aren't looking great. They are turning brown a little bit, and the moss it's planted in seems to be decomposing or something (it stinks and is holding water really long). So I'm just wondering if I can or should cut the spike now to avoid having the plant produce any more blooms or a Keiki while it is unhealthy like this. Will this stress the plant out too much?

Thanks for the help!

Tthe roots are rotting, it has too much water. You could cut the spike but even if you don't you do need to repot. Take the plant out of the pot and wash off all of the media. You will need to use a sterile scissors. We would usually sterilize the pruners with a torch. cut back all of the soft and brown roots and leave only the healthy firm roots. You may have to cut back the tips of the roots to get to the healthy tissue

Before you repot you will need to get orchid bark. NZ bark is popular now but you can use redwood bark, sphagnum moss, or small decorative fir bark, but it won't last as long as the NZ bark. the media needs to be soaked overnight first in 10% bleach to make sure it is clean and get rid of any dirt and dust on it.

If you are using sphagnum peat moss. Just put enough to fill the pot or enough to get under the plant on the raft in a bucket and pour boiling water over it and let it soak until the water cools. Use gloves when handling sphagnum.

Get a new pot that the plant barely fits into. Make sure it has lots of holes on the bottom and the sides. Orchids like to be under planted. I actually prefer to put my orchids in baskets instead or mount them on a raft.

Positition the orchid in the pot so that it sits in the center about an inch from the top. If you are using bark and gently fill the bark around the roots and gently tap the pot on the table to settle the media. Fill the pot until just the top of the roots show and the orchid is held firm enough that it won't move or fall out. Do not tamp, it may break the roots. Orchid pots are usually shallow since you do not want a lot of water to be held in the media especially in plastic pot. Some people use a few irregular pieces of styrofoam pellets or pieces in the bottom of the pot to reduce the amount of media needed. You want to make sure water will flow around the styrofoam so it cannot be tight.

If you are using sphagnum moss, it is actually easier to plant. Wring out the spagnum moss until it is just barely damp, then fluff it out. Put a wad of the spagnum loosely under the crown of the plant to cover the hole in the middle add spagnum to pad the roots without smashing it, then when you have the roots wrapped in a ball of sphagnum, put it in the pot. Fill in as needed but not too tight, just enough that the plant is set and won't move too much or fall out. Do not cover the base of the plant or it will rot.

If you plant on a raft or basket you need just a small amount of the spagnum under the plant to keep it moist. You will tie the plant to the raft. I like to use something that will degrade and fall off eventually. Panty hose works pretty good.

Now this is important, after you repot do not water for about a week so the plant can recover and the cut ends have a chance to heal. If you are successful, the cut roots will branch out and new roots will form.

There are a couple of ways to water orchids. With phalaenopsis, the easiest for me is the color of the roots. When the roots are white they are healthy. When you water white roots they turn green. Don't water again until the roots are white or the pot is significantly lighter and the media feels almost dry. The rule of thumb is that if you think it needs water wait another day and then water. Phals do not like to completely dry out but they do not like soggy media either.

The best time to repot is after the plant has finished blooming but if the roots are rotting you have no choice. If you wait too long there won't be any roots left to save. BTW I have repotted orchids in bud and they still bloomed.

Orchids don't die, we kill them. Usually with too much water. Use a water soluble fertilizer every two weeks or fertilizer weakly weekly or 1/4 strength fertilizer solution every time you water. How often to water....as needed. It really depends on how fast the plant dries out. Indoors it will dry slower than outside in the wind. Rafts and baskets dry faster than plastic pots and sphagnum dries slower than bark. When you do water, make sure the plant drip dries in the sink and it does not stand in water.
This is video to show how to repot an Phalaenopsis with rotten roots. I am used to soaking the media first and I do not mix sphagnum with bark. But people use the media which works the best for them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbXQIsNKysk

BTW Phalaenopsis are often potted in see through opaque pots with a concave bottom and slits on the side. Phals are one of the orchids that normally live on trees. The roots of phalaenopsis will also perform photosynthesis. That has saved some of my phals because bulbuls, slugs, and snails like to eat the leaves and I have had a few that had to come back from just the roots.

Thanks! That was a long video - 21 min. But I watched it through and it was very informative and useful. I'm looking at one of my plants now thinking this one probably needs to be repotted.

Last year, when my gift phal plants finished blooming, I pulled them out of the flimsy plastic pots and then plunked the tight sphagnum-wad rootballs loose in the bottom of other pots (with drainage holes) that were slightly bigger. Laziness! I know ...but those are the ones that seem pretty happy now.

Orchids are prone to fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases. Old media is usually 'sour' or acidic and probably contain a lot of fungus and bacteria. It can be used for other things but should not be used again for orchids, especially if it shows signs of decomposition.

Orchids are usually potted in new or bleached pots and with sterilized (media soaked in a fungicide like physan or 10% bleach)

Tools need to be sterilized between each plant and what some people do is layer newspaper over their work area to make cleanup easier. After working on a plant, the newspaper and all the old stuff is thrown into the can. Hands are washed or gloves changed and hands are washed, the surface is wiped down with a rag and alcohol and then it is ready for the next plant.

The reason for this is because orchids are expensive. Enthusiasts can have hundreds or thousands of orchids in a collection and if they become contaminated with a virus, there is nothing to do but throw all of it away, pot and all. Bacterial and fungal problems can be transmitted by tools or physical contact through damaged tissues and orchids are usually packed on to benches.

Some orchids like vanda are known for getting botritis and dendrobium anosum are usually vegetatively propagated so are very high risk for getting virus and they are usually kept in their own section and maybe in a separate space away from the more prized orchids.

There are some expensive vandas because they do not multiply quickly, but honohono orchids (dendrobium anosum) are pretty much rubbish orchids. They are good beginner orchid since they actually like to be watered everyday and they are the easiest ones to propagate. The old fashioned ones have a lovely fragrance and they bloom once a year. Most of them should have lost their leaves by now and should be budding up soon. They are the stars of the Windward and Kunia Orchid Shows since March will be their peak season of bloom. Not to say that the honohono is a cheap orchid, a good specimen with five 4 ft flowering or budded canes will cost around $50. It will bloom for about 2 weeks.

Thanks so much for all the info! I repotted both of my orchids into an orchid bark mix so that hopefully this won't happen again. I had to cut away quite a bit of roots though, so I hope these poor orchids can survive.

Phals actually are one of the orchids that are best for indoors since the don't need a lot of light (70% shade), and they don't like to dry out, but you have to look at the kind of conditions you have and make sure you water the orchids only when they need it. I tend to go both ways, I used to water every day but I have cut back, now, my orchids are dying because I don't water enough. My orchids still do best in the most aerated pots.... baskets and clay. I don't like to use bark unless I don't have anything else because it breaks down faster than hapuu, cinder, or sphagnum moss and I am bad about repotting on time. The orchids I have that catch the sprinkler system spray actually don't have any media at all. Maybe a couple of pieces of styrofoam to stabilize the plant or they are just stuffed in an empty pot. Vanda just get tied to the basket and hung, they don't need media but like to be watered every day. Mine tend to get too much sun since the leaves are yellow and I have black spots because I do not regularly spray them with a fungicide.

I repotted both of my orchids on the 18th (one week ago today), and they don't seem to be doing very well. The larger one had a wilty leaf when I repotted it, and right after repotting it seemed to get a little better, but now it is looking terrible. It is extremely wilted and spotty, as well as turning grey on the edges.

The smaller orchid seemed to have decently healthy leaves before repotting, and now several of them are wilting and generally looking very wrinkly. The roots are also looking pretty dark and wrinkly.

I watered right after repotting and once again on the 22nd (Thursday), and am monitoring closely for when they seem to need watered again. I'm doing this based on when the roots turn white and look "thirsty" again.

Is this just transplant shock, or have I done something wrong? Please help me to make my orchids healthy again Thanks.

You just have to wait. The old leaves will sinese, they don't have enough roots to support them and phals have no pseudobulbs to draw energy from. As long as the crown does not rot, new leaves will grow. It will take about 3-4 weeks to see if any new roots start to grow. Until then the orchid really does not get much food. When you do water, you can try a root stimulator, B1 or one drop of super thrive in 1 gallon of water. Do not use the whole gallon, it is the minimum mix. You can use it on other plants. Super thrive might be able to force the roots to grow. Once you see new growth start feeding the orchid everytime you water with 1/4 strength miracle grow. Do not water more often than you need to, just make the watering count. BTW orchids do not like chlorinated water, so if your water is chlorinated let it sit in a bucket for a while until the chlorine dissapates or use rain water.

There isn't much more you can do now. Make sure the plant is seated well so it does not rock in the pot, or the roots will have a hard time getting reestablished, that is why staking helps when there aren't a lot of roots left. It is pretty much up to the orchid now to recover or die.

I forgot to make this clear. Use super thrive only once. It is a growth enhancer and can only be used once. Otherwise because it forces growth, the plant will exhaust itself. That is why you always have to make sure an enhanced plant is also fed afterwards to support the growth. Some orchidists use it to force growth so they can make more divisions of the plant, to force back bulbs to produce shoots and to promote more blooms, but it cannot be used more than once a year.