I think my phal. got crown rot help me try to save it please :(

[Alvaro78]

Hello guys,

Today I went to touch one of my orchids leaves and it fell and I noticed that the part closest to the stem was black and then another leaf dropped and I am now left with 2 leafs and in the center I can see some black.

I feel so dumb because I am always careful with watering and I always remove the water that may be on the leaves or the center and somehow water still got into this one

So I was wondering if you could tell me the chances of it surviving and what could I do to try and save it? Like applying cinnamon or something?

I attach some pictures so you can see the state of it. Thanks a lot for the help!

[Dalachin]

At that stage, the only way a Phalaenopsis can save itself is to produce a basal growth. If there is enough energy in the plant and root system, it may successfully do this, but it also might just die. If it is established in its pot, keep watering regularly and never get water in the crown.

I’d soak the roots and base of the stem in kelpak for a couple hours. I don’t think cinnamon would do much for that plant, although you could carefully dab some on the place where the leaf came off, being careful not to get it on the roots.

[Alvaro78]

I see. It has active root growth and I have been using kelpak for a while now which I had to use this week. I'll try applying some cinnamon to try and stop the spread of the rot so fingers crossed

[estación seca]

You need to figure out what happened and prevent it. What are your temperatures and relative humidity? This happens when they are too cool, unlikely in Spain in late May, and also when they are very warm and humidity is high.

Phals. have a natural tendency to grow sideways. This permits water to drain from the crown. Some people let them grow like this to drain the crowns. It does take more space.

I prefer hydrogen peroxide for this problem. Just one or two drops in the crown. Let it bubble, then remove with a tissue.

[Alvaro78]

I think what most likely happened is that some water got into the crown and I didn't realize because it has sometimes happened but I have always realized and I wipe the water off. This orchid is one of the hard reaching ones so watering is a bit complicated and that must have been what has happened and I guess there is a first time for everything

I ended up using some hydrogen peroxide diluted in some water to decrease the % for a few minutes then I removed the water there and applied some cinnamon to seal it off.

I hope it can produce a keiki, but it is now 100% certain that nothing will grow out of the mother plant from its damaged crown, right?

[estación seca]

Usually the central meristem is dead, but not always.