What if the roots of the orchid are getting rotten?

Many flower growers consider orchids a hypersensitive and fragile kind of plants.

Many flower growers consider orchids a hypersensitive and fragile kind of plants. But in fact this flower is quite strong. If you can provide it with necessary conditions, it will live a long and beautiful life. It is also important to examine the plant thoroughly the day you bring it home from the shop. If the plant was originally ill it will die soon after being bought. It won't hurt to take your new orchid out of the pot, remove growing medium, trim away bad roots if you see any, and finally, put the plant into fresh medium.

How to identify ill roots?

Some people claim they can spot rotten roots by looking at their colour. It really could indicate a problem but only if you take into account other things. Yellow colour, contrary to the common belief, doesn’t signify any serious problems with the flower. Rotten roots could be dark or white, but more importantly – hollow, slick or falling apart. When you press healthy roots with your finger, they would be tough. You must be very cautious while examining roots, because infection can get on other parts of the plant.

Reasons of the problem

There might be several reasons of orchid’s health problems:

• lack of light;
• fungal infections;
• overwatering;
• overdrying;
• hardening of growing medium;
• old age of the plant.

How to save the plant?

The first measure you need to take is to cut off all bad roots. You shouldn’t take pity and avoid cutting through the healthy parts. All infected bits must be removed so that bacteria or fungus wouldn’t spread again. The knife or scissors must be sterilized before the procedure. Orchid has a chance to survive losing even all of its roots. It uses green buds to create a new root system.

After that you need to protect the edges that are now open for any infection. Disinfection can be performed with the help of activated carbon or decontamination agents from plant shops. Then your orchid needs to rest for two or three days.

If there are no roots left, put it into some water so that it would barely cover the growing point of the plant. A bath with a stimulating agent might help as well, but don’t do this very often. The orchid can take this bath for 1-2 hours every two weeks. In some cases growing new roots will take a month. In others it would take half a year. Be patient and wait until you can see sprouts growing out of green buds.

When the length of new root reaches 5 centimetres, it is time to repot it. Try to create necessary agricultural conditions. Conifer cortex and clean Sphagnum moss can serve as a good medium for the orchid. It also needs enough scattered light and not too much moisture. The soil should be watered only after it gets dry. Filtered water is more efficient for this purpose, and you should do it in the morning when the plant can take it better.

These recommendations will help you to reanimate the orchid and keep it beautiful and healthy.

Source http://hi-spring.com/post.php?id=17