Water Saturated Leaf?

[hollylee]

Here is the photo of it today, and a smaller photo of what i see growing, a root maybe. Does it look ok? I took the moss off of the top so i could show some of the roots.

[hollylee]

Now I am steaming mad. I have coddled this orchid and i checked on it today and have now declared it dead. It still has one nice leaf, and 2 questionable roots left, but 6 more roots died, and the remnants of the spike i cut off was covered in white fuzz. The planting mix was nearly dry! I hadnt watered it in days! Inspecting it a little furthur, it smelled really awful in the potting bark, and then i see all these little white flecks running around.

I said thats it, and dumped it pot and all into the garbage. I have two good phals, that i just repotted in bloom and have continued to bloom since. I have done a little exam, and they look bug free, but i dont want to pull them out of the potting again so soon.

any advice?

[priz_m]

hollylee I'm sorry to hear your phal is doing less than great. Well if your question as fas as advice is "can something else be done?" well yeah.

If you still have a leaf and a couple roots, you could try sphag-n-bag, however, bugs and bad odor in the media (not to mention fuzz in the cut spike) definately means something has been rotting beyond saving.

If you choose to sphag-n-bag it, make sure you give it a good trim and a great bath with fungicide.

I will leave you with Ray's page which I find to be extremely informative in this measure.

Sphag-n-Bag

Should you go for it, I hope it works, let us know what happens

[Jadeco]

I hear miracles about sphag-n-bag. Holly, you should fish it out of the garbage and really try it! When I was little (12? 14?) I thought my orchids were dead because they weren't doing so hot. Even though it can be frustrating to take care of a sick orchid, I wish I knew back then that I could have saved all those orchids =/

[Swamper]

Jadeco, you are more optimistic than I am I totally admire you for it. I will just observe a moment of silence for it.
Holly if you do try to ressurect it, please keep it far away from the the chids ....and any other living thing.

[quiltergal]

Holly, you might want to check out the new medium you repotted into. The pre-mixed stuff that comes in a bag more often than not is already decomposing in the bag before you ever use it. I mix my own, so there's no chance of bad medium. I'd pull it out of the trash. If it has any viable roots left on it at all it could make a recovery. Phals are pretty hardy.

[betoguerrero]

Hollylee:
I don't know whats the problem, maybe those guys put some alcohol or something in the leaf.
I'll cut the leaf, and I'll repot the plant...

[hollylee]

Had I not gotten the two new orchids I would have totally given it another shot. But I live in a small place and I dont want to spread its ailments to my new ones that seem to be thriving. I repotted them in a different mix than I used for the old orchid. This mix i used now has perlite in it, perlite and bark. I have been checking and they seem to be in good shape, not a bug to be found.

Also, the inner plastic pot they came in were not well vented, so i cut vents up the sides of the inner pots and that seems to help the potting material from getting too wet.

I almost wonder if with the original plant, it was so dried out in the roots and potting material, that when i watered it it sucked all of that water into the leaf causing the spot of excess water. Ive not seen that before, but it seems viable. I was on a every 3 weeks watering "schedule". That was before i knew much about the plants.

In any case, you all are very helpful, and I am feeling optimistic about these two healthy plants.

Here they are pretending to live in the wild (i dont actually keep them in the window for fear of scorching)



Pot 1


Pot 2

[betoguerrero]

I like that pig in your pot....

[hollylee]

Orchids get lonely, its nice to have a friend around.