Phaleonopsis suddenly has yellow leaves

[Rojo]

My plant is roughly 4-4 1/2 years old. it has lived in this spot for over 3 years. I water it about 1/4 c once a week, sometimes longer. It has been fine and thriving until recently and suddenly the leaves are turning yellow. HELP!

[Roberta]

First, Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Losing one or two lower leaves is normal. However, it is time to look at the health of the plant. When was it last potted? If the answer is more than 2 years, the roots do need a look... there are some nice aerial roots, but what is in the pot?

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Rojo

My plant is roughly 4-4 1/2 years old. it has lived in this spot for over 3 years. I water it about 1/4 c once a week, sometimes longer. It has been fine and thriving until recently and suddenly the leaves are turning yellow. HELP!

If your upper leaves remain nice and healthy looking, then don't panic. Bottom-most leaf or leaves are bound to get so old as to become yellow and fall off - eventually.

Maybe you can describe the pot a bit more. Does it have good drainage? What media is being used? Pebbles?

Has the temperature remained comfortable for this orchid?

And - do you apply any weak fertiliser and/or calcium/magnesium supplements every once in a while?

[Rojo]

Thank you for your quick response!

The pot is the original plastic one from the florist. it is potted in pebbels and tan bark. I never checked before, but it appears there is no drainage- no holes in the bottom of the pot.

It has been colder here than usual, but not drastically. I'm in Central California. I have never fertilized it at all.

Now I feel like a horrible plant mom!

I'm a little afraid to unpot it- i don.t know how to go about re-potting it!

[SouthPark]

Rojo - you're welcome. At this moment, there's always the chance that your orchid is just fine.

To make sure that everything is actually satisfactory - the usual recommendation for all orchid growers will be to unpot the orchid and inspect the roots. This is to make sure that the roots appear healthy - with none being soft and mushy. Also - roots appearing to be quite dry and very light to the touch can be an issue too - maybe meaning not enough water for the orchid.

Having no drainage (no hole) for a pot is not always an issue. But - having no holes certainly can create issues.

A recommendation is to carefully remove the orchid from the pot - with as little damage as possible (preferably no damage) to the roots.

Inspect the roots. If they look good, then you can always repot the orchid - but maybe using a different pot (purchased from a home/garden store - eg. Home Depot) - a plastic pot with big drainage holes at the bottom of the pot - lots of drainage holes at the bottom.

If the bark doesn't look broken down, then you could use the same bark and pebble media - for the moment anyway. Otherwise, if the bark media doesn't appear to be in good shape (ie. broken down), then gather the pebbles only and use those pebbles for repot only.

If there's not enough pebbles, then you could purchase more of them - clean fresh-water river ones - likely available from gardening stores.

But - if you can - maybe a local orchid nursery will allow you to get other media, such as orchid-suitable bark (eg. orchiata bark - of suitable size pieces - a bag mix of 12mm to 18 mm pieces).

From your photo of your orchid's growing area - it appears that your orchid has been doing fine there for a relatively long time. It's hard to say from looking at the photo whether or not you get good air-flow in that room. Hopefully you do get good air-flow most of the time - because a still-air environment combined with a pot having no drainage (doesn't allow air to flow easily through the pot) can lead to health issues for the orchid.

Also - providing some weak orchid-suitable fertiliser once a month will be beneficial. Without fertiliser inside a living room growing environment is like a person getting no intake of vitamins. Eg. a person won't survive without vitamin C.

[aliceinwl]

With my first Phalaenopsis, I followed the directions on Repotting Phalaenopsis (Moth) & Other Monopodial Orchids to repot it and mix up new media. I did substitute orchiata bark for the fir bark, but I still pretty much follow this for repotting all of my Phalaenopsis.

If you just have the one plant, you might want to check out rePotme Orchid Supplies . I really like their clear plastic slotted pots for my Phals. The roots seem very happy with the extra air. They also have great pre-mixed substrates you can buy in small quantities if you just have the one plant. I buy and use the MSU orchid fertilizer they sell on my plants too and have been happy with it.

If it’s never been repotted and doesn’t have drainage the yellow leaves could be a “cry for help”. I’d repot ASAP.

[Rojo]

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I guess I’ll bite the bullet and pull it from the pot today. Keep your fingers crossed!

[Rojo]

One more question- I have all these long roots outside the pot. Should I try to curl them without breaking them and put them inside? They are a bit of a nusiance outside, and I worry someone will break them.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Rojo

One more question- I have all these long roots outside the pot. Should I try to curl them without breaking them and put them inside? They are a bit of a nusiance outside, and I worry someone will break them.

You will need a pot that is a little larger - a 5 inch round plastic pot would be good. Soak the roots for a few hours, to soften them. When you put the plant into its new pot, you can gently work those long roots in with a "twisting" motion (sort of like you are screwing the plant into the pot) so that they will wind around. If a root cracks, it's only the velamin - the spongy outside coating - that is cracked, the core of the root will be ok... you want to avoid that if possible, of course, but if it happens the root will still be useful. Then you can fill in with bark. If your pot is larger than that, you can prevent having too much volume in the middle by inverting a small pot under the middle of the plant, to maintain an air space.