Orchid Root Rot: Identify, Trim, Repot, and Recover
You lift your orchid from its cover pot and find brown roots, wet bark, and leaves that somehow look thirsty. It is a horrible little contradiction: she seems dehydrated, but adding more water may be the thing making her worse. Orchid root rot is the collapse of damaged root tissue, leaving roots soft, hollow, or unable to move enough water into the orchid. That is why wrinkled leaves can appear while the pot is still damp. The rescue is not simply “water less.” You need to find out which roots still work, remove only the failed tissue, and fix whatever kept the root zone wet. ...