Another forum said that I should not water the first 10 days of a repotted Phal so it can start growing roots. I thought it needs water in order to start growing roots. How does a plant grow roots in a dry state? I never heard of that. Problems seem that every forum has different suggestions and no wonder some of us are either killing our plants because of this confusion.

Growing new roots is one of the great problems of orchid growing, some Genera will grow new roots without any problem at all, other Genera will only grow new roots at certain stages of their annual growth cycle.

"Every forum has different suggestions", well, seeing that you do not even have the state where you live in the USA on your my page details, how can you expect solid information?

My very small collection of Phals grew new roots when i put them outside in a glass-house for summer. Maybe you have to do something similar to "tell" the plant that conditions have improved.

Finally, in my opinion Phals are not the easiest orchids to grow. Easy orchids are the ones that grow best for most growers without much fiddling with conditions. To have a large collection of Phals here they have to be housed in a glass-house all year with temperatures, humidity and shading just set for them.

It is true that each type of orchid needs different set of growing conditions but to answer your question... The reason you do not water for 7 to 10 days after re-potting is to allow the damaged roots to begin to heal before they are exposed to a dose of root diseases. I have been drenching plants with a mix containing Physan 20. It has increased my success tremendously.

Well, if your phal. has no roots at all, I'd suggest throwing in the trash and going to Home Depot for new one. Why bother nursing some NOID phal. back to health when you can just start over?

I had to chuckle at the last post here! I bought 2 orchids in 3 inch pots at HD recently and repotted them yesterday. As the OP posted, the roots were all dead. They had been crammed into this tiny pot in sphagnum moss and were soaking wet, and stuck to the sides! One pot actually had 3 plants in it - I was only able to salvage 2, but I don't think they are going to make it without any roots at all. That pot also started out with 2 spikes with numerous flowers and buds, but both spikes turned yellow and died last week.

I potted them up in bark and will see what happens. At least one can return plants to HD, no questions asked, within a year - I will certainly take advantage of that if these do not make it. It would be a shame, as they were differently colored harlequin orchids - I haven't seen those for sale anywhere else around here.

Well my �no roots left� Phals spike is still healthy looking and the remaining flower is still in full bloom. This was purchased at Loewes, not HD. Next time maybe i should pull out the plant to see that i don�t get suckered again. Its not right for them to sell them that way. If i return it, why wouldnt they say that i killed it_ Anyway I threw away the receipt...$16 bucks for a couple of weeks or so of enjoyment. But I will not give up hope in reviving it.

OH boothbay so sorry you threw out the receipt - just last night I saw a commercial for Lowes that said they also take back plants within a year.

One of mine from HD is still in bloom also, without any roots because they were all rotten. NOt sure if the remaining 2 buds will fully open or not.

I just returned a very dead juniper bush to HD - not a single question was asked and my money was returned immediately. I have no qualms about returning plants there - they throw out less than perfect plants all the time - the vendors will credit them, but won't allow them to clearance them out, nor give them away, so in the trash they go - what a waste!!!

I just moved to Chicago from Florida and found that the Home Depots in Chicagoland do NOT take back Orchids, though they do accept most other plants for refund within the year. They told me this is because they cannot return the Orchids to their supplier. I was surprised the policy is not corporation wide with Home Depot.

I hope I can clear the confusion. The other forum might have given you the info not to water for 10 days because that helps any "wounds" on roots seal themselves. If you have a root that has a root rot on the tip, you can trim that tip,treat it with cinnamon or your choice of whatever, let it seal by not watering it for a couple of days, then resume a regular watering schedule.Whenever I repot an orchid, I let it sit for a couple of days before watering again; I don't let it sit for 10 days, but that is that person's opinion. I also pot up lots of stuff in spagh, which a lot of people won't even touch. But the benefits, from my point of view, outweigh any drawbacks.gb

"I thought it needs water in order to start growing roots. How does a plant grow roots in a dry state?"

Answer - What good does watering do when a plant has no roots? Without roots, the plant sits in water and continues to rot. Letting a plant dry out, forces the plant to make roots to 'find water.'

Please, think about this logically. Why would you water a rootless plant?

Jane

I have a similar situation with 1 of my orchids as well and I found a site called firstrays.com basically it explains the water concept that a plant can't take up water without roots but to use humidity as a water source or can do spag-n-bag concept. Hope you find this useful.