Monday, October 2, 2025 (Day 9) was a big day for Starbuck and it started with a 30 minute soak. I filter all of the water I use on my plants with an Amazon Basics water filtering pitcher. When I use tap water, I add a few drops of aquarium water conditioner. There are two reasons to do this: The first is that she was ready to be watered. The second was that it will make removing the media from her roots much easier.
After soaking, I began the work of loosening her roots and removing the media from them. This is a slow process and it must be done with care. The first step was to see which roots could be loosened. I then began pulling out small chunks of the highly compacted media. It was made up of either coco coir or peat moss. With as compacted as the media was around the roots; I’m surprised Starbuck was as healthy as she was.
Once the media was gone, I cleaned the roots thoroughly. For difficult areas, I used a soft toothbrush on the spots where the media had been absorbed into the roots. Over all, her roots looked good with only a few soft, mushy spots. The goal at this point is to remove any dead tissue without damaging the firm healthy roots. This is necessary because dead tissue in water can make the water foggy.
While cleaning the roots, I try to treat them like they are made of gold. These roots are used to obtaining water and nutrients from the media; they are not “water” roots. Some of these original roots will make the transition to water, others will not. Every root that is lost decreases your orchid’s chance of surviving the transition to water culture.
Where roots are mushy, I gently peel the velamen away leaving the root core/string root. When the mushy part is at the end of the root, the velamen will often just slide off. If bits of velamen remain on the string-root, I clean that off with a soft toothbrush and filtered water.
Once the roots are clean, I find a jar or vase to be the orchid’s new home. The orchid should fit snugly in the vase and not be in danger of toppling out. I had a fishbowl and a tall, straight vase available for Starbuck. After trying both, I felt the tall vase worked better and held Starbuck more securely than the fishbowl. I added stakes and clipped them to the spikes to keep the orchid from sliding down into the vase.
| ORCHID ROOTS 1.0.1 Orchid roots should be green, yellow, or white, depending on the amount of light they are able to receive in the pot. The green fleshy part of the root is called the velamen and it surrounds a thin string-like core, a.k.a. string-root. The velamen absorbs moisture from the air and the string-root is used primarily to strengthen the root which allows it to cling to trees in the wild. Also, fun fact, while the velamen absorbs most of the plant’s moisture/nutrition, string-roots can absorb about 1/10 of the water that the velamen can. So always try to save the roots and if all else fails, save the string-roots. |
After placing Starbuck in her new home, I’ll let it dry out for 24-48 hours. During this “dry” time, any wounds to the roots can heal or callus over. By allowing wounds to heal, the roots will be less likely to develop root rot once it’s in water. Also, since the orchid was just soaked, it’s a good idea to let the roots dry out before adding water.
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