Dead orchid or still hanging there?

[lady.parisai]

Long time reader and first time poster. Just wanted some expert's opinion on this orchid that I bought a few months back. The roots have always been in a pretty dull and limb condition (grey and dried) but I thought I would take up the challenge of reviving it. Started off with 4 leaves and recently the bottom 2 have dropped off and I've noticed another one is yellowing and probably will fall off soon as well. Is it salvageable? It's growing in bark and I water about a tablespoon of water once a week. Any feedback would be great!

[chemist]

Table spoon might work if it would be in sphagnum moss.
In case for bark you want to soak it for few minutes. Or run water through the pot for few minutes untul you see root from gray color turn into green.

You still can try to revive your orchid but it will take few months (my rootless one took about 3 months to start new roots).
The leaves will wrinkle and turn yellow and fall of but it should grew new ones. Just water it enough.
And you need to increase humidity since your plant basically has no roots.
Soak roots in water ( make sure water does not go in crown, where leaves start grow), if you have kelpmax or superthrive, add it according to label. And see if there is any viable roots left. Cut off all dead roots, repot and hope for the best.
Good luck!!!
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[cucubirds]

I'm afraid it might have stem rot. To check, gently remove the dry layers squeeze if it is still firm or mushy/soft.

If soft or mushy then cut away that portion, dust with some fungicide powder. Also trim mushy roots. If media stay too wet then need to change it too.

Then pot with either bark or bark mix with sphagnum moss depend on how dry is your growing environment.

Good luck.

[ksriramkumar]

concur with Svetlana. phal seems to be very dehydrated. move to a place with more humidity or try sphag and bag

[kspalding]

I had a phal that I posted on one of my threads titled phal orchids that was like this. When a phal has no or short dried roots water is not actually the answer. It looks like you still have one somewhat viable root that can help give you a chance but I should warn you it will take alot of patience to even see an indication of health being revived. Keep in mind the following guidelines are based on growing in a tropical environment with high humidity because both air flow and air moisture will prove to be very important.

When I rescue these types of orchids without rooting I find it best to not pot the plant but rather leave it exposed to allow air to the plant which is most important during recovery since orchids are an "air" plant. If you have a hormone solution or in my case I used liquid seaweed extract (water solution) and soak plant for a few minutes. Make sure solution does not sit on leaves or near crown but that the viable root still touches.

Although u may be tempted I don't recommend removing any leaves surgically unless absolutely necessary because you will want to salvage what you can to provide a base for the new leaf growth that will happen eventually. After soaking and placing on top of a bark soil just mist it regularly and you should soon see the roots growing out of the plant. Not long after the leaves should start to follow.

Sorry if I dont use technical slargon in regards to descriptions of the plants I am not an expert in naming plant parts anymore than I know human biology, lol. Sphag and bag would actually not be a bad idea only you will want to keep an eye on the moisture buildup on the plant very regularly. With the plant not having roots to absorb the water, water will tend to sit there increasing rot risk and eventual death of plant that is why airflow is most important to keep too much moisture buildup AND also to allow plant to breath.