orchids over-watered at the store

[shlay51]

I bought 2 orchids yesterday ---- Vendor information removed - see FAQs on Posting ----. I know the majority of places that sell these plants locally don't have a clue what they are doing when it comes to their care, but I've had really good luck with 4 other orchids after getting them home.

However, these two were over watered. I'm talking both were sitting in almost a cup of standing water each. I dumped the excess water off and right now I currently have them sitting on a cooling rack on my sunroom floor, which is heated, in hopes of drying them out before root rot can occur. The floor is not overly hot and they are not in contact with it so there should be no risk of burning the roots, etc. Is there anything else that I can do for them?

They are in a bark medium and I don't want to transplant them just yet because they do need a little TLC before I put that stress on them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[ECC_lectic]

First, I hope you got a good discount for them. I've seen similar abuse at various big box stores.

Second, why not remove them from the soggy (and probably decomposing) bark altogether? Gently lift them out of the pot, shake off loose bark, don't disturb pieces that are stuck to the roots, and let them dry out overnight in the air. Then pot them up in the morning into a fresh medium.

[shlay51]

I did actually end up removing them from the pots they came in. One had quite a bit of root rot already so I cut the soft areas off and them and let it dry out a bit. I eventually put some rooting compound on it and potted it in new bark medium. It's actually looking a little better even though it only had about 3 healthy looking roots by the time I was done trimming.

The other one didn't have any root rot, but I did put it in a new pot with new medium and it's doing good so far.

[panam]

I hope they reward you well for your kindness!

[shlay51]

So it's been 2 weeks since I transplanted both plants. The one is doing great, the buds survived the transplant and should be opening in a week give or take. This was also the plant that didn't have any root rot, so I didn't expect t have any issues with it. The one that did have a large amount of root rot, is still alive. It doesn't look any better or any worse. The leaves are somewhat soft and not stiff(?) if that makes sense. I know the plant is working on new roots as it lost most of them to rot, but my question is, is it still "healthy" if the leaves are like this? The bark medium is slightly damp at the moment (I watered them 2 days ago) and they are dry by the time I water them again. The coloring is still a nice green color, like the healthy one and there aren't any spots or anything like that.

[hank3443]

Hi Shaly, It might take awhile for your plant to show improvement until it enters a growth period. Most of the time I repot my plants in the spring when they show new growth, however that being said you did the right thing in repotting your orchid, by the way I always repot when I purchase a new plant. I think your orchid will be fine it will just take a little time. Good luck Hank.....

[max]

The soft leaves that you described is due to the fact that the plant has no roots for water uptake so it is having to use its reserves but in time it should start to put out new roots and bounce back just fine.

[shlay51]

Thanks for the support. I've never had to nurse an orchid back to health. I've killed a couple before I knew what I was doing (Over-watering them), but I've manage to keep 6 alive for over a year, and they have bloomed multiple times a year.

[shlay51]

I'm excited to announce that the plant that had shown no sign of improvement has finally started to shoot out a new leaf! It's only about half an inch so far, but any new growth is exciting! I am not very confident that this little guy is going to make it after over 2 months of watching it with no change at all.