Hi, I'm new here. *wave* I have a problem with my orchid. I was away from home for about a month, and my mom agreed to take care of my orchid. The orchid is fairly large and was extremely happy before I left. It also has a baby spike near the top of the stem (but the baby has no roots of its own.) When I came home, all the big leaves and main part of the orchid were severely dying. My mom had over-watered it -- a lot. I tried to save it, but it's mostly gone. I've only continued to water it, praying it will come back, but mainly for the baby spike. The stem (of the main plant) has begun to die; it's brown on the bottom half. The upper half of the stem(about 3 inches below the baby spike and above) is still green. The baby spike is still green too, but the leaves are beginning to wither a lot. What should I do? Can I cut off the baby spike and remaining stem and replant it, even though I don't have any roots for the baby or the stem?
When a plant is overwatered, repot immediately and keep the soil barely moist until it recovers. Not sure about the baby plant. Try placing it in a moist rooting mix and keep humidity high by placing a cup(clear) over the plant.
You need to pull that baby out and strip it's roots bare and see what ya got!!! Just very carefully pull out the mix (it will be bark, or sphagnum moss probably. I have noticed that if you get it from the store that they just pack the poor thing as hard as they can full of sphagnum moss.) and carefully again pull as much of that as will come off easily from the roots. You can use a pair of scissors to snip around at the sphagnum moss if that is what's in there. Watch for the roots. Thoroughly inspect the roots. They will be very thick and meaty and grey or green. Snip all the rotten or dried out tips of the roots and see what ya got. If the plant has no roots that are alive, it's prob a goner. When repotting remember to use a pot (preferably clay) that has a hole in the bottom and some holes around the sides are good too (you can check out orchid pots at Wal-mart with the other clay pots). Remember that the roots need to be very well aerated and never sitting in water. When you water it the water needs to come through very quickly and you just water it for about thirty seconds, let it drain, and then take it back to it's spot. now, of course, this only works for arboreal orchids, but if you got it from any hardware store or like Kroger, it is almost definitely Phalaenopsis. Other things to remember are that these are not plants that grow in the ground (again, their are a few very special orchids that grow in the ground, but it is unlikely that this is what you have) they grow attached to the bark of trees. They have water flowing over them quite a bit but never sit in water and they have lots and lots of air. So make sure your plant's roots are not packed very tightly. Good luck.
Thanks for the replies! Well, the baby spike isn't in the pot. It's at the top of the stem of the plant. There are no roots with the baby, either. I guess I'll try cutting it off and planting it into another pot. I'll let you know if it survives. :/
It's prob just a branch of the stem. It will prob flower but I don't think it will root or become a new plant. I suppose it is possible though...
It could be a new plantlet or "keiki", youtube some keiki videos to get an idea of what to do, also with sick orchids there is a very useful treatment called the sphag and bag method for recovery, google that and hopefully you can recover your orchid!
Oh my goodness! Thanks so much for that tip! I don't know why I haven't thought about doing something like that, but I have some - basically dead - orchids that I got from Lowe's and Kroger (I like to get them when they've as I call it "lost their pretty" and i can get them anywhere from fifty cents to two dollars and maybe be able to keep them alive but they tend to be in bad shape when the store is finished with them :( ) that I was soon to give up on, i will try the Sphag and Bag method on them. Thankyou so much!
in the 20 days since I posted that I had a very sick orchid that lost its major leaf come back to life with about 5 big new green roots with that method, dont keep it too moist, just like a spray of a bottle and close it up oh and nice and bright!