Question
Hi Jim,
I have a Phalaenopsis orchid which is in bloom at the moment. It seems to be happy although it has a lot of mushy roots. They were mushy when I received it. I thought of repotting it right away but since it was in bloom I decided to wait. It has now happily bloomed for, I think, over a month already. But recently I noticed some white fuzzy spots around one of the roots inside the pot. They do not seem like bugs, they don't move. They are not on the root, but right next the root, little 1 or 2 mm sized fuzzy round things. There is nothing on top or underneath the leaves of the orchid. Can you help me shed some light on this mystery  and what do with the spots? They seem to be only around that one root and nowhere else in the pot. I also have another fully healthy Phalaenopsis right next to this one, I would love to move them apart but unfortunately I have absolutely no place else to put one of them :( Thank you!

Answer
Hi Annely,

While I cannot be certain without seeing it, the white spot you see might be a small piece of perlite or sponge rock.  Some orchid growers use perlite in their orchid mix to help keep the media aerated.  Perlite is volcanic rock that has been super heated and expanded while it cools, so it is basically inert and should be no problem.  There may be more of it deeper within the pot which you will see when you eventually repot it.  

Hopefully you have been careful with watering this phalaenopsis with the rotten roots, allowing the mix to become barely moist before watering again.  Kept too moist only worsens the problem.  

Until the blooms die off, get fresh potting media and possibly a slightly smaller pot so you will be ready to repot it when they do.  If there are few or no live roots left on it, you should repot it into the smaller pot regardless of how large the plant itself might be.  The reason for this is that too large a pot for number of live roots will slowly cause those roots to rot also due to the media remaining wet for too long as the few roots are unable to take up much moisture.  

Hope this helped.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.