Taking Care Of Root Rot in a Cymbidium Orchid

I was doing so well taking care of my lovely Boat Orchid. Right up until I put it in a shady spot and over watered it. In Arizona, the temps can get as high as 118 in the middle of summer. During this time it is very very hard to grow any plants that are not native to the area. Just because this is my first full growing year here I stupidly saturated the water once a week. This turned out to be a HUGE mistake. It was growing new flower spikes, but at the same time starting showing signs of Leaf-Tip Die Back. It could have been due to my overwatering or it could have been from the sodium content in the tap water. These were the steps I took to insure it would survive. 

Step 1

I removed the plant from it's container and ran clean water in the roots until all the soil was out. This did 2 things. It cleaned out the old soil and removed any salt deposits that could have built up from the tap water. I noticed a lot of rotted roots and dead bulbs. Below are pictures of what healthy roots should look like vs sick roots. 

             Healthy                                                      Sick 

Step 2

Let that bad boy sit for a bit. I kept mine in a tree for a few hours and kept a very close eye on how much I let the roots dry out. Every 30 minutes or so I would step outside and touch the roots to see how damp they still were. I wanted them to dry out a bit but not all the way since that would kill the roots. 

Step 3

Cut all the dead roots. This will not hurt the Orchid since it is pretty hardy. It can always grow new roots from the existing root ball, but if you let the rot get to the plant there is no coming back. I went to town on mine as you can see. (After I cut the roots I slathered them in Cinnamon. Yes, like the stuff you make french toast with. It prevents the spreading of fungus and will prevent the cut site from being consumed with fungus)  

                                Before the cut                                                       After the Cut 



                                The Remains 

Step 4

Make sure you switch out the soil for some new and dry soil. Next step will be repotting. Which I have done in the pictures you see. Put it back where you were originally growing it if it was not the spot itself that was killing it. Cut any damaged leaves and spray with an anti fungus mist. And BOOM. 

 


Remember to keep an eye on your Orchid to see if it takes a turn for the worst. If you see any black spots or the tips turning a yellow /black remove it from it's pot and take it to another spot. I wont water my orchid for about 10 days to make sure it stands a chance. These plants are native to Australia so they will be fine recovering in the extreme heat. Happy Growing =)

My Different Species of Orchids

For about 6 years I have been growing and learning about Orchids. I am by far no expert, but I do have some personal experience in raising them in less then perfect conditions. I recently moved out to Arizona about a year ago. Since then I have suffered some losses with my original Orchid collection. As you can imagine I was devastated to run into issues such as Black Rot, Bud Blast and Fungus. Most of these issues due to trial and error with plant placement and outside conditions. Luckily for me I have worked out all the kinks trying to grow these hardy but needy plants in the Desert. Some of my favorite are: 

Boat Orchid 

 (Cymbidium Orchid)

My Favorite Orchid. I got this one from a Base Exchange around February time frame. It has produced some wonderful flowers for me. The pot is from a local flea market that they have in the area.

Moth Orchid

(Phalaenopsis Orchid)

This is probably the most common type of Orchid. Also called just add ice orchids  (which I hope to god you do not put ice in your orchids). You can find them at your local grocery store and they come in a variety of different colors. In the wild they grow on trees and love high humidity climate. This tends to be hard to replicate for me since Tucson Arizona comes with 0 humidity climate except for the Monsoon Season. Sadly, these have been the victim of my experiments since they are cheap and easy to obtain. 

Intergeneric Orchid

 

I literally just got this plant today. It's a hybrid of several species of Orchids. Cochlioda, Miltonia, Odontoglossum, Oncidium and Ada which have all been mixed together to form this exotic beauty. I found it in Lowes and hope it to be a bit more hardy then the Moth Orchids.