Dehydrated?
So I'm rehabbing this moth orchid in water culture. I plan to keep it in water culture permanently if she adjusts well to it. It has finally started to push a fresh green root out of the bottom of the crown. However, her leaves are very dark green and very sad and droopy. I googled, and supposedly, this is because of not enough water? But...she's in water all the time. I went ahead and googled some more, decided to wrap a zip lock baggie around the crown to help increase moisture near the base without actually sticking her crown in the water. The few roots she does have are the leftover stringy ones from pulling off the velamin. Now, she does still have flowers currently holding on for dear life. Should I go ahead and cut the spike to direct the energy to root growth? Or just let them run their course? The spike is also dark green with a branch coming off the side from a lower bode as well that doesn't have flowers blooming yet.
#orchidlovers
#orchidlovers
0ft to light, direct
4” pot without drainage
Last watered 1 year ago
9
Best Answer
Hi Lindsay,
Without the velamin, the roots (the strings) die off, so they serve no function anymore. As I understand it, that leaves it without any roots which would explain her state. Because of that and the look of the leaves I would cut the spike (with sterilized tools!) And focus on helping your orchid recover. The plastic bag idea is in theory what is needed, but I myself have had problems with mold, when I supplied no ventilation and too much humidity. I tend to place the Orchid on top of a pot with water retentive substrate (cococoir, sphagnum etc) or even an empty one (or in your case one filled with water even) and put this one in a bigger one that is higher than the leaves (and has a bit of water on the bottom in the case of the empty pot) to elevate the humidity around the leaves without removing air circulation altogether. Sometimes I cover the bigger pot partly, if I think the Orchid can take it. (Should rot appear I spray the rot with hydrogen peroxide 3%). Your orchid has at least two big and healthy - albeit dehydrated- leaves. That should be enough to tide it over until it has recovered, even more so since it is already producing leaves.
Without the velamin, the roots (the strings) die off, so they serve no function anymore. As I understand it, that leaves it without any roots which would explain her state. Because of that and the look of the leaves I would cut the spike (with sterilized tools!) And focus on helping your orchid recover. The plastic bag idea is in theory what is needed, but I myself have had problems with mold, when I supplied no ventilation and too much humidity. I tend to place the Orchid on top of a pot with water retentive substrate (cococoir, sphagnum etc) or even an empty one (or in your case one filled with water even) and put this one in a bigger one that is higher than the leaves (and has a bit of water on the bottom in the case of the empty pot) to elevate the humidity around the leaves without removing air circulation altogether. Sometimes I cover the bigger pot partly, if I think the Orchid can take it. (Should rot appear I spray the rot with hydrogen peroxide 3%). Your orchid has at least two big and healthy - albeit dehydrated- leaves. That should be enough to tide it over until it has recovered, even more so since it is already producing leaves.
@Nocturnal666 Lindsey- I personally would cut the spike so it can focus on the roots. I am not sure about the water deal, as orchids are not fans of lots of water. Except paphs . Try looking online at Miss or hold girl on YouTube! She tells tons of great advice.. keep us posted with updates.. we rooting for you! 🙌🏻😏
Not quite. Even if you do hydro, the stem should not be in the water as far as I know. This could be the beginning of your problem, if you did this before as well. Is the stem healthy? The Stem and crown of the Orchid are very susceptible to rot and if that happens, the Orchid is fighting for its life. In that case I would take it out of hydro immediately to try to save it.
Hi 👋. This plant isn’t dehydrated! It’s in water culture! Weirdly, the symptoms of overhydration and dehydration are pretty much exactly the same in phals - droopy leaves, wrinkled roots, the leaves going slightly darker. I learnt this from an orchid nursery! It’s natural for phals to lose their roots when they are moved to water culture. That’s because the root system was set up for the last media it was in (probably either bark or sphagnum). If bark, it’s a lot less water retentive than…water! So the roots are used to being drier. Phal roots are not able to adapt to new environments - phals actually favour killing off their roots and making new ones to suit the new media. As new roots come in, they will be better suited for water culture. However, some phals simply won’t survive the transition, so it could be really helpful to keep an eye open for phals that have been grown semi-hydroponically or in sphagnum as they will be used to more watery environments. To transition this plant, you could give the roots a wet/dry cycle by keeping it in water for a few days, then emptying the water for a couple of days and letting the roots dry etc - this is much like the one they get in pots and in nature. Once it has perked up and is coping, you could try increasing the amount of time the roots are in water. There are some videos on YouTube about the methods that people have used to switch to a hydroponic/water culture set up