s/h beginners

[hohcs]

good news... one of my transpotted phal is growing new leaves. and i can see no old roots has died. in fact from what i see, they are growing new tips. is this normal?

the other one, with onlyh one root is continuing to turn limp and the lowest leaves are dying. i took it out of the pot one day to check it and the old roots are still green, thick and healthy. it is still putting out aerial roots though - strange. i mean the aerial roots are growing in length. i see black nodules in the lower part of the plant swelling, maybe they are going to be new roots. the top leaves are still green, though a bit limp.

i am curious to know if the plant is dying, how long it takes? it has been i think a month, right? from the first post, and it is still more or less the same sorry shape. will it turn around?

chung shih

[LJA]

Chung, that's one of the unfortunate things about orchids, 99 percent of the time, once part of the plant has been damaged for whatever reason, that part will never make a comeback. You'll have to wait for new growth, roots and leaves, to see if your changes have made any difference. However, anything new growing is a good sign. If those swellings you're seeing turn out to be spikes though, for the plant's well-being, don't let them develop. Cut them off so the plant can put its energy into roots and leaves.

[hohcs]

thanks for your reply, lja.

will the plant put off spikes even when they are dying?

c.s.

[uncasteeb]

i am curious to know if the plant is dying, how long it takes? it has been i think a month, right? from the first post, and it is still more or less the same sorry shape. will it turn around?

It,s going to take a while for the plant to recover , as long as you have some leaves & they,re green you still have a chance.

[LJA]

will the plant put off spikes even when they are dying?

I've never seen that happen here. Some people, though, believe that dying plants will put out spikes as a last-ditch effort to reproduce, but again, I've never seen it. I have seen plants on the brink start to spike while still "healthy," and then get the life sucked out of them by the effort it took to make flowers under less than optimum conditions, and that's what you're trying to avoid. You can channel the energy from flower production back into the plant itself if you cut off the developing spike, once you know for sure that spikes are what you have coming on, and not roots.

[hohcs]

how does one know if a bud growing is going to turn out as a flower or a keiki?

c.s.