Phal leaves turning colors

[sheiman]

So my very first orchid - a phal that I bought just about a month ago - doesn't look like it's doing so great. It has 3 leaves - 2 fairly large, one small. One large leaf and the small leaf are both turning pinkish/yellowish/brownish.

I had my orchid on my desk in the living room which has northern exposure, and when I noticed that the leaves were turning colors I moved it to the kitchen which has southern exposure. Both rooms get good light, I've been taking care not to over water, and I fed it once so far with Schultz orchid food.

Here is a picture of the leaves, and a picture of the blooms which are starting to wilt. There's also a bud that has never opened and looks like it's starting to shrivel a bit.





Should I cut the spike already, would this help? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[seamonkey]

It looks like it's on its way out to me. Could we see the roots?

[PitcherASAMD]

Yeah, unfortunately that's how mine looked right before it died My phals death was related to root issues and over watering......

[whygreenberg]

My ? It looks to me like it could possibly be due to sunburn. You mentioned that you moved it from a north-facing window to one that's south-facing. It's possible that the sudden change in light intensity fried it. I've never been in that situation, so I'm afraid I don't have any advice or thoughts about how bad the prognosis is.

[camille1585]

It doesn't look like sunburn too me. Sunburn would have made areas of the leaf die and blacken, not discolor the entire leaf. Have you unpotted to check the condition of the roots? That's usually the first thing to do when a plant has problems, because most of the time the problems come from there. But seeing as the very newest leaves are affected and not the lowest one yet, it might be something like crownrot. Have you gotten water in the crown?

[sheiman]

I haven't unpotted it to look at the roots actually so I'll check them out tonight.

Camille - is the crown the center part where the leaves come together? I'm very new to orchids. I may have gotten water in that area. Is there anything that can be done about that if it's crownrot and not rootrot?

[sheiman]

Originally Posted by whygreenberg

My ? It looks to me like it could possibly be due to sunburn. You mentioned that you moved it from a north-facing window to one that's south-facing. It's possible that the sudden change in light intensity fried it. I've never been in that situation, so I'm afraid I don't have any advice or thoughts about how bad the prognosis is.

I moved it after I noticed that the leaves were turning colors so I don't think it would be due to the change in light.

[sheiman]

OK, I just took a quick cell phone pic of the roots...I take it these are not healthy? Is there anything I can do, would repotting help?

[RosieC]

I'm afraid those roots don't look healthy and with the state of the plant it might mean it's a gonner I'm afraid.

If the crown (yes that's the center of the leaves where new leaves grow from) and the leaves nearest to the crown looked green then I would say it was worth trying to save, but I'm not sure with that one.

First thing to do if you want to try, is cut off all roots which are soft/mushy and see what you have left. If you have none left (which it looks like may be the case here) then a technique called 'sphag-n-bag' is probably the best bet. I can't find my link to it just now but try searching on the term as there are sure to be lots of links here on OB.

[RosieC]

I've found the link for Sphag-n-bag

Sphag-n-Bag