phals loosing new leaves

[lakesusy]

Hi !Lakesusy here. Living in Northern Calif, retired. I am a newbie with a long love for orchids! My success/failure is spasmodic. Of late I I have lost several new healthy looking leaves from a couple of my phals. They look almost like they've been cut. The area where the leaves came from is blackish. Now I see one that appears to have some damage on emerging leaves. I have acouple of pictures I will attach. Thanking you for your advice in advance! You will probably get tired of hearing from me so I will try and space my posts on other problems.....

[Roberta]

First, Welcome. And keep asking questions! Hard to tell from the photos, but if you are seeing black in the crown (the area from which new leaves appear) there could be rot developing there. A few drops of 3% hydrogen peroxide in that "pocket" may head it off (keep the H2O2 off the roots but in leave area it is safe) It looks like you have some nice new root growth, so that is good.

[aliceinwl]

I’d second Roberta. I’d add that once the peroxide is done fizzing, dump it out of the crown and use some tissue to wick out any remaining moisture. Then carefully sprinkle some cinnamon into the crown. I’ve read that cinnamon has some anti fungal properties but at a minimum it seems to do a good job of keeping the infected area dry and unfriendly to rots.

I’ve had mixed luck, if I catch it before the rot makes it too far into the stem/crown the above seems to work, but some plants have been too far gone by the time I took action or noticed a problem.

Good luck!

[Brian1212]

Originally Posted by Roberta

First, Welcome. And keep asking questions! Hard to tell from the photos, but if you are seeing black in the crown (the area from which new leaves appear) there could be rot developing there. A few drops of 3% hydrogen peroxide in that "pocket" may head it off (keep the H2O2 off the roots but in leave area it is safe) It looks like you have some nice new root growth, so that is good.

3% hydrogen peroxide kills plant tissue!

3% is human grade for wounds

0.1-1% is orchid safe

0.01-0.1% is safe for fish - kills algae

use 3% at your own risk!

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by lakesusy

Thanking you for your advice in advance!

The roots and leaves in general still appear to look ok.

Describe the way you're growing this orchid. Does it get good air-flow (air movement) around the leaves, stem, and all the roots?

What temperature and potting media is being used.

Does any of the roots in the pot have chances of getting water-logged?

Does any water build up in the region where the leaves sprout from? If water gets stuck in there, or stuck in there for too long, it could possibly raise chances of rotting activity. Not sure of the mechanisms behind the rotting ------ sources generally indicate bacterial activity. Watery pockets could encourage unwanted bacterial activity.

One way to cut down on this issue is to water the media only. This doesn't mean that it's necessary to water the media only - since orchids in nature and outdoors gets rained on. But - doing what we can to avoid possible issues can be beneficial for the orchid.

Do you store any fungicides for orchid medical treatment? If not, then consider systematic fungicides like cleary's 3336/thiomyl, agri-fos. These probably won't be needed when growing conditions are very good. They'll just be on-hand for unexpected surprises.

[DeaC]

Sometimes easier said than done,but watering should be done early in the day so leaves can dry off. Any moisture left in the crown will rot the area so just tip out excess,stick piece of paper towel in crown to wick out water or do what I do sometimes and blow it out. Leaves also need to dry as water and a cool temp will damage them. Happy growing!

[aliceinwl]

I think the rationale with using 3% peroxide in the crown is to kill everything/all the exposed open tissue since it’s presumably infected with fungus/bacteria. Then the cinnamon desiccates everything so the fungus/bacteria don’t have nice moist tissues available to feed on.

That said, I’m not sure how scientifically legitimate the above is. But, it is cheap and non-toxic and I’ve had about a 50% success rate. I might go with an actual anti-fungal if I had a major outbreak of some crud, but so far the safety warnings have kept me away.

I do think prophylacticly and/or indiscriminately spraying the roots and foliage with 3% hydrogen peroxide is a recipe for disaster.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by Brian1212

3% hydrogen peroxide kills plant tissue!

3% is human grade for wounds

0.1-1% is orchid safe

0.01-0.1% is safe for fish - kills algae

use 3% at your own risk!

3% hydrogen peroxide degrades both plant tissue AND human tissue. Using 3% hydrogen to kill algae in a pond or aquarium works. It's a matter of knowing how much volume of water vs. amount of peroxide to use.

[lakesusy]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

The roots and leaves in general still appear to look ok.

Describe the way you're growing this orchid. Does it get good air-flow (air movement) around the leaves, stem, and all the roots?

What temperature and potting media is being used.

Does any of the roots in the pot have chances of getting water-logged?

Does any water build up in the region where the leaves sprout from? If water gets stuck in there, or stuck in there for too long, it could possibly raise chances of rotting activity. Not sure of the mechanisms behind the rotting ------ sources generally indicate bacterial activity. Watery pockets could encourage unwanted bacterial activity.

One way to cut down on this issue is to water the media only. This doesn't mean that it's necessary to water the media only - since orchids in nature and outdoors gets rained on. But - doing what we can to avoid possible issues can be beneficial for the orchid.

Do you store any fungicides for orchid medical treatment? If not, then consider systematic fungicides like cleary's 3336/thiomyl, agri-fos. These probably won't be needed when growing conditions are very good. They'll just be on-hand for unexpected surprises.

My orchids are all on a table in front of a south facing window. This is the only place they like. If I move them they get unhappy. I was spritzing them with water with a bit of orchid food mixed in and they seemed to love it. Suddenly I had bloom stems all over the place and several very happy keikis (sp?) But I also noticed some wilt starting in the leaves. Decided perhaps I was over stimulating them so I backed off on the orchid food. (Miracle grow Orchid mix) Now I am spritzing occasionally with plain water. After reading some posts on this site, I got brave enough to re-pot several of my sagging orchids. I found that although they had lots of roots above the medium, the ones below were in very bad shape. So I changed the medium (bark), gave them a quick soak and we shall see! I must thank all of you for giving me the guts to go ahead and re-pot. I think this was needed. Two days later and the leaves are still sagging but still attached! And my keiki I potted is doing well.

[early]

The first orchid fertilizer I started using last year was 30-10-10. I grow in Semi-hydro and here or elsewhere, decided to buy another brand that
is 20-20-20
Now on closer inspection, I find both brands has urea as part of the nitrogen, and just today I have asked about Urea and orchids.
I think for all beginners, like me, it is important to carefully read the labels.
I started studying orchid care of Phals last year and find something either new or that I have not retained in my brain yet and this is a wonderful print, not video site to help with that. I like the ability to ask question and then put all the answers in a file so I can go back and refer to them.