Recovering Orchids, are they ok? - Orchid Board

Lou_Reid · #1 09-12-2019, 03:21 PM

Hello, I got a few orchids as gifts after my daughter was born. So they got neglected for about a year and I thought they would die.
I repotted them, removed the old roots and stems and surprisingly they recovered. The purple one has lots of buds but the leaves have a few marks on them. Is it too much water, sun, disease?
The other one I believe is a Dendrobium nobile? It lost its main stems but new leaves and short stems are appearing. It doesn't seem to be growing up but rather lots of shoots and roots are growing. Do I just leave it or does it need more care?

SouthPark · #2 09-12-2019, 05:50 PM

Just let them keep growing. Getting shoots and growth is obviously a good sign. Give adequate light - as much as they can handle without getting burnt. And give good air-circulation around the whole plant ----- and avoid any roots from getting water-logged or getting stagnant water around them.

Every 4th week or so (eg. week 1, 5, 9 etc), provide a bit of diluted orchid fertiliser (eg. single application on day 1 of week 1; single application of day 1 of week 5 etc) - apply to roots and media only.

And maybe 2 weeks after each fertiliser application (eg. weeks 3, 7, 11 etc), provide some diluted calcium/magnesium treatment for the orchids - apply to roots and media only.

rbarata · #3 09-12-2019, 06:09 PM

It seems your Phal is getting too strong light intensity.
Put it in a shadier location.

neophyte · #4 09-12-2019, 06:29 PM

the bottom leaf on your phal looks a bit suspicious... does it have a brown spot surrounded by silvery, dead tissue? that could be an indication of a mite infestation. otherwise, the new leaf indicates that it's pretty happy.

your dendrobium is a nobile-type dendrobium, but there is no guarantee that it is of the species Dendrobium nobile. it is normal for the stems (typically called canes) to drop their leaves every year. don't worry about that.

Swimmingorchids · #5 09-12-2019, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbarata

It seems your Phal is getting too strong light intensity.
Put it in a shadier location.

I see no sun damage. So light is good enough to get the phal to flower.

They could probably do with a light fertilizing/feeding with nutrients.

Leaves look a bit underfed.

Roberta · #6 09-12-2019, 08:04 PM

I do see sun damage on photos 2 and 3... the spot in 3 looks like it got a hot spot from sun... that sort of thing can happen in less than a minute. Won't harm long term, just look ugly.

Swimmingorchids · #7 09-13-2019, 07:11 AM

could possibly be but one thing I feel I have most experience with orchids so far is sunburn damage.

And I can't see it. I can see a brown patch and yellowing leaves but its winter now anyway so sun will not be an issue

Edit: Sunburn damage occurs on the leaves receiving most light. Very rarely will sunburn damage show on the oldest leaf that is covered by several young ones.

EDIT 2: Ok so yellowing leaves, like said, indicates a nutrient deficiency.

Orchids benefit from rainwater and that that rainwater is at a ph of roughly 6.0

If you use tap water with a ph of 8.0 - leaves will yellow slightly.

They need regular light feeding also as they have no soil to get nutrients from

The phal in particular is going to leech nutrients out of the lower leaves to produce the flowers it is growing.

However I can see some lighter spots starting to develop on the dendrobium too which will limit its growth a bit.

Roberta · #8 09-13-2019, 10:10 AM

I have watered Phals for well over 20 years with tap water pH close to 8, had no problem with yellowing leaves. While have had better success with some of the little rain forest orchids (Pleorothallids and such) since I switched them to reverse osmosis water, most of my plants still get tap water, and they are very green. So that isn't likely to be causing the yellowing problem.

Ray · #9 09-13-2019, 10:47 AM

The spot in the yellow circle is certainly sunburn.

I see absolutely no sign of nutrient deficiency there (not that anyone can diagnose that from a photo). Orchids are SO undemanding of fertilizer, that the first signs of a nutrition shortage is often nothing more than few- or small flowers.

Unless it is WAY out of whack, the pH of an applied solution has very little impact of the pH within the pot. Both the medium and the plant have far greater impacts.

September is winter in the UK?

Swimmingorchids · #10 09-13-2019, 01:13 PM

well the plants look ok, I think that is the bottom line.

We got our first chill of the year so winter starting to creep in although today we have our last bit of Ibiza weather it seems.

Ray I know you advise to feed so regardless of whether that spot is sun damage or not (It's too hard to tell from the picture) I still think a bit of orchid fertilizer is the main thing lacking.