Phal mutation and Phal rescueS

[joveaurora]

everyone I am new to the forum, actually more of a lurker. I am also an orchid killer. I did manage to keep two of my plants alive from last year. However one of them has grown a weird leaf. I emailed the seller and she said that it was a mutation and that my plant was fine. However she said that this kind of mutation was rare and she doesn't know the name of it. I was kinda hoping to do some research myself but its hard when you don't know what you are searching for.

Does anyone know what kind of mutation this is and should I be worried?




Also I wanted to share... on Friday I went a little overboard and got a whole bunch of rescue orchids.

My goodness I did not think it was going to be so much work. I end up doing the no no and worked with all the orchids together. There was no way that i could have done one by one. Well I could but it would take a much longer time.



Here is what i have done for the plants...
1. trim rotting rots and bruised leaves
2. soaked in Physan
3. next soaked for 10mins rooting/fertilizer
4. hung all the plants upside down to dry
5. potted with bark and moss

am i doing this right?

more questions...

1.a couple of plants looks like it is going to spike... do I allow it to grow if the plant has very little roots?
2. what about the plants that already have new stems do I leave them on the plants even though i had to cut a lot of the roots?
3. oh yes i forgot to mention one of the plant has lost all its roots and leaves.. what do I do with that plant?


Thanks for reading and replying!! I hope all my plants survives. I will have more pictures in my album.

[Call_Me_Bob]

welcome to ob

im not sure about the mutation.

i cant really help you . but i would still like to be kept posted
maybe some of the more experience member will chime in

[PaphMadMan]

The odd leaf probably is not really a mutation, not a genetic change just a developmental quirk triggered by a temporary glitch in growing conditions, slight damage to the meristem or a 1 in 100000 chance. This kind of thing can be more common in young cloned plants. This leaf could be described at 'quilled' but I doubt you will find much info on this specific deformity. The problem now is that the next new leaf may begin to develop deep down inside the quilled leaf and be restricted, or water could collect there and cause rot. You may want to carefully slit open the inside edge that is abnormally joined to allow it to open up in a more normal way.

As for your rescued plants, it sounds like you have done everything you should. I'm a big fan of 'wait and see'. If they begin to grow new roots soon all should be well, even possibly the leafless one. Just give them good growing conditions, a little less light for a while until they are stronger, and watch for rot. Despite what people say it is very rare for a plant to 'bloom itself to death'. If it isn't strong enough to support a spike it probably won't try, and I would remove one only if buds were forming AND the plant was going downhill at the same time. For now all healthy green tissue is a good thing.

[Zoi2]

Hello and welcome to the OB.
I've not seen that mutation before so can't help you with it, sorry.
I always cut the spike to about an inch from the base on ailing rescues. I prefer they grow roots first.
I doubt the plant that has lost all roots and leaves is a keeper.
I would watch the plants pretty closely for pests and fungus for the next 30 days or so since they were rescues and you worked with them at the same time.
Enjoy your new collection!
Joann

[joveaurora]

Thank you my welcoming team. I will def keep you guys posted on the progress of the plants. I will also def be keeping an eye on the orchids. It’s a lot of work but I am very excited. I’m already wondering what color blooms I might get.

Rootless/leafless plant
– wrap in a little wet moss and stuck it some Perlite. Placed it the bathroom.
– If it lives great but if it doesn’t I’m not to worry about it.

Spikes
- One of the rescues has two new spikes that already have 2-3 nodes each. I think I will keep these spikes since I want to see some blooms!
- The spike of the other plant had bud forming on the secondary spike when I got it. The leaves of this plant look pretty healthy but the root of this plant was pretty dehydrated. I think I am going to cut this spike.
- I have little mittens on two other plants. Woohoo! I think these grew while the plants were hung to dry.


@ PaphMadMan

– Mutation sounds so much cooler than defect. While I was browsing on this forum, I saw something similar but they had a spike growing in the center. I hope that is not going to happen to my plant.
– I did not think about new leaves or water being stuck inside. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
– I am going to operate. How far down should the slit be? If I mess up can i just snip both of the center leaves?

-JoveA

[Rosiefuture]

Hi, I think if you snip the leaves from the centre of the crown then no others will grow and the plant will eventually die. Having said that phals often develop basal keiki's on plants where the crown is damaged. If you find my thread 'This Phal is going crazy', you will see one of my plants where the crown was damaged and it has developed a huge basal keiki and other growths.

Marion

[joveaurora]

Thanks Marion, I will take a look. Haha thanks for warning me before I attempt to kill my plant again.

[camille1585]

Snipping off leaves will not damage the crown. To damage the meristem you would probably need to yank the leaf out of the crown. But I do agree that cutting a slit down the leaf where it naturally should have split to open it up would be a good idea. I think the best way to do that would be to cut it as far down as possible, and if the leaf keeps growing you should keep cutting. Hopefully once that leaf is full grown it will flatten out a bit and be less of a funnel for water to accumulate.