My Poor Babies!

[orchidsal]

Tammy the aerial roots i see are alive in the left hand photo and they look pretty good in the right hand photo so I would not chop them off. Your going to love my advice, but I'd chop some fine moss and stuff it in the containers or at least do a moss top dressing. Its not the moss in and of itself that did the harm to your roots, but over watering and or old breaking down moss that caused the problem. If your Phals get sufficient moisture those leaves will firm up nicely. Phals are good that way. I could even suggest using nothing but moss and a repotting for now, but in 6 months to a year depending on how much you fertilize you'd be repotting again. Using seaweed extract would not be a bad idea either. All the best! AL

[Mammatam]

Is this your Mother's Day orchid? Fine looking specimen!

---------- Post Merged at 11:00 PM ----------

I got the impression it's still in bloom. Is it? If so, you're doing something right - if not, healthy leaves make for happy bloomers.

---------- Post Merged at 11:02 PM ----------

Good luck on these Tammy. Hope you can bring them back, T

Hi, the 2 little ones are from Mother's Day 2013. They are the ones in real trouble.

The one with blooms is a rescue I just bought a few weeks ago. It was water logged and a lot of it's flowers were really beat up, so I cut off what was bad and repotted. It seems very happy.

I'm sorry if I confused ya! :-D

The 2 lil guys I'm tryin' to get them to grow more roots and the new rescue I'm just tryin' to keep alive and happy!
:-D
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---------- Post Merged at 01:59 AM ----------

Tammy the aerial roots i see are alive in the left hand photo and they look pretty good in the right hand photo so I would not chop them off. Your going to love my advice, but I'd chop some fine moss and stuff it in the containers or at least do a moss top dressing. Its not the moss in and of itself that did the harm to your roots, but over watering and or old breaking down moss that caused the problem. If your Phals get sufficient moisture those leaves will firm up nicely. Phals are good that way. I could even suggest using nothing but moss and a repotting for now, but in 6 months to a year depending on how much you fertilize you'd be repotting again. Using seaweed extract would not be a bad idea either. All the best! AL

I really appreciate the advice! I'll see if I can make a run to the local nursery tomorrow. I know they have moss, I'd imagine they may have seaweed extract of some kind.
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---------- Post Merged at 02:14 AM ----------

Also, no, the 2 little ones do not have blooms
I did just snip the couple of really bad aerial roots off one because they were not really connected to the base anymore.
I sprinkled cinnamon in the area. On the other there was one with a dead tip I snipped, I put cinnamon on the cut end too.

Thanks again!!
:-D
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[Mammatam]

So, as per the advice on here, I went to the local Garden Center for Sphag. I called first and spoke to someone to ask about prices etc. I also asked if I could bring them up there to have a professional look and see what they think. I just feel that the pics do not allow you to feel the leaves, medium, etc. and I wanted to remove them from the bark to see how the roots were doing.

OMG! The little bit of roots they did have when I potted them into the bark were completely gone from one and very much next to nothing on the other. My Poor Babies now have no roots under the surface and one of them has one aerial root and the other may have 2 that are still viable.

The guy at the center was extremely helpful and I was so impressed I will continue to go there even after we move just because of how I was treated!!

He took a good look at the stems, and my set up and said too much moisture. Which was obvious to me too, once I removed the bark to see no more roots. But the aerial roots were still drying out too much.

Anyway, I went there expecting to spend money on moss and something to stimulate roots etc. I really do not have a lot of money to blow right now so, when I saw the price on the Super Thrive I was like, "I just can't spend that much money right now". He said "Oh yes, I understand, let me see if I can find you a small container"... I was really surprised to have such great customer service. He said no to the moss, no to the other stuff I was gonna get. Then he gave me about 4 caps full of the ST concentrate in a small water bottle and advised me what to do when I got home...

I would have spend nearly 20 bux had he not been so helpful and it would have been a waste of money because it would have probably just made things worse. I got home and filled 2 cups (the same kind my babies are in) with fresh bark mix. Mixed 1 cap full of ST to half a bottle of water. Basically 2 caps in a whole bottle. Poured the water with ST into the fresh bark and it is soaking today.

Tomorrow, I will re-pot my babies into the new bark. I will take pics before, of the stem, so ya'll can see what I am starting with. I like to keep a photo "diary" if you will of this journey.

I'm really bummed, because I feel like had I just let them be after the 1st watering last week, they may have been ok. Even though the pic looked like the bark was dry, that was just the surface. I was advised by someone, not on here, that they needed to be soaked and tented!! I was just assuming that this woman knew what she was talking about. Thing is, that got the bark too moist for too long on the little bit of root it did have and now those roots have rotted away...

Now I will be sure to do it right, and keep in contact with the guy at the center, cuz he was very knowledgeable and helpful and obviously not just about making money. Thanks to him, I have some ST and didn't spend any money!!

Anyway, I'll be keeping ya'll posted on how these babies do. I'll post pics after the repot tomorrow.

Patience and Perseverance is KEY!!!

[ksriramkumar]

Good you found a good knowledgeable person at the local garden center. keep us posted on how it goes,

[Carolla]

Sounds like you got good advice at the garden center. When you get advice here, don't run out right away and do whatever it is, but wait for several people to weigh in and get a consensus, answer some questions if there are any and then you'll have a better idea what might work for you in your situation. For one thing, I have heard both to use cinnamon on the whole plant and also that it is not good for roots, but good for leaves. I'd not use it on the roots again. Super Thrive is well known to stimulate root growth and should be a good choice.

For watering a "limp" orchid, I determine if the roots are too dry or if they've been rotted away. If they are too dry, I soak the plant for half hour or so (get the bark rehydrated), then let it dry pretty thoroughly then do it again. In general Phals rot pretty easily. If you are going to tent or bag anything, watch it really closely to see if you are getting rot and take it out if the plant seems too wet. For rotted roots, if you have any aerial roots, repot the plant after trimming away the dead roots, secure it so it won't wobble, then mist the aerial roots a couple of times a day and possibly loosely tent it to keep the humidity up. Low light for a stressed Phal can help too.

However, if you find someone that loves orchids locally, that's great help. They can show you how to care for it and help you to monitor the plant. I hope your babies do well!

[lijun]

Good luck tammy,.. don't give up,..

[Mammatam]

So I forgot to take a pic of the stem of the 1st one I potted, but let me just tell you, no roots whatsoever on the underside, but it did still have a couple decent aerial roots...

I did get a pic of the 2nd one I potted, just to show y'all. I also took very good pics of the leaves to show the condition they are in...

NO Roots


Both Plants, I have named the files as "Right" and "Left" plant as per what side of the tray they are on when I look at them... The one on the right has the best looking leaf out of the two. However this is also the one that has not one single root, not even aerial... I did soak the stems of these two plants in water for about 20 minutes before I potted them into the Super Thrive treated bark...


Left Plant One Leaf


Right Plant One Leaf


These both do have 3 leaves each, I just didn't want to bog y'all down on here with all the pics I took. I have pics of the other leaves close up as well as one angle that shows just a bit of the left plant's aerial root...

OK, well now we wait!! LOL

Keep on wishing me well and sending those positive energy vibes my way!! Let's hope I can save these babies yet!!!

---------- Post Merged at 11:22 AM ----------

Good luck tammy,.. don't give up,..

lijun, I am so obsessed with this, I couldn't give up if someone paid me!! LOL

[Mammatam]

I added a little more bark to the pot because it was very loose and kept shifting around whenever I'd move it, I thought it needed to be more stable.I added bark and soaked it today, it was ready. Here it is before the add and after....

Before


After


OK That is it for today, got stuff to do around the house!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

[lijun]

a couple of days ago you had 2 good roots and a few not so good aerial roots,.. now just aerial roots,.. have you treated with fungicide?

[Mammatam]

a couple of days ago you had 2 good roots and a few not so good aerial roots,.. now just aerial roots,.. have you treated with fungicide?

The "good" roots I had, rotted away under the bark over the last 2 weeks. Ithink they were probably ok for the 1st week, but that 2nd week they got and stayed too moist. I was not looking so I did not know. The aerial roots were not as good as they looked in the pics. When you looked closer you could see they were not even attached to the plant at the base anymore. I haven't any fungicide, I can't afford any. I did use cinnamon, and I cut off the yucky stuff that was still on them today b4 potting. All I can do now is hope for the best... I figure with the super thrive treated bark, they should start producing roots. If this doesn't work, then they were probably already too far gone for me to fix.

Nature usually does find a way to hang onto life, if given even a small chance. This is a small chance and I'm hoping it works!! I'll keep y'all updated!!