moss ball in roots

[sharath]

hi i have 2 phal which i was thinking of repotting in coconut husk, when i took it out, i found the center of the roots was covered with a ball of moss i removed the moss and i repotted it with coconut husk, i want to know does it effect the plant growth,bcos last time when i repotted my first phal i removed the moss,the plants leafs turned yellow and it died, is removing moss is the reason for the plant to die. can anyone suggest me with this thank u

[PhilsDC]

As for me, the moss doesnt affects the health of an orchid. They have symbiotic relationship with each other. They share signs of good conditions of climate. In the first place when you look at the moss which is green, it means the health condition of your plant is fine. But if they are too much moss in its surroundings it means you don't need to water much because the moss growth indicates the presence of water. Sometimes the moss dies out because of too much watering.

For me, I just leave the moss growth as it protect the roots from harsh sunlight or hot dry air and also a nice ground cover for the plant.

[wetfeet101b]

The moss you are talking about is probably the sphagnum plug that the nursery used to grow the baby plants in.
Once orchid seedlings reach a certain size, they are separated from the compot (community pot) and are planted in small individual pots.
The medium of choice for this size plant is sphagnum moss because of moisture retention and it is resistant to fungal problems.

When the plant grows bigger, it is again transferred to a bigger pot.
The grower can continue to use sphagnum moss for the potting medium (as in the case with most mass produced phals), or they can use orchid bark, but keep the sphagnum core intact because it is time consuming and commercially inefficient to remove them. They jut fill in the new potting medium around the existing sphagnum plug.

Changing your orchid's potting culture from sphagnum moss to orchid bark will be a transition from a very moist pot to a relatively quicker drying pot.
A pot with orchid bark will always dry out faster than a similar sized pot with sphagnum moss so this should be taken into consideration when planning your watering schedule.