orchid newbie: Psychopsis Kalihi with soft, yellow & black leaf - Orchid Board

groundpounder17 · #1 07-30-2010, 10:21 PM

Hello everyone! I'm new to orchids but I've been doing my research. About 3-4 weeks ago I purchased 2 orchids from orchidweb, a Psychopsis kalihi and a Phal gigantea. The psychopsis was in spike and looked rough on arrival. It had some broken and brittle green leaves, some with many black spots. One of the leaves was soft and yellow at the base fading into a small black region. The leaf has become softer and yesterday during watering the leaf was easily plucked from the plant by accident. The buds are tight but very dry. I repotted in an orchid bark mix upon arrival. I use distilled water and Feed Me orchid fertiler, usually watering about every 4-5 days. My plants are in a south facing window. My concern is that this could spread and kill my plant. The phal gigantea is doing well but the two small base (bottom) leaves are wilting, turning yellow and dying which I understand to be normal aging. The top 3 gigantea leaves appear to be healthy and green although the newest is very pliable. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

groundpounder17 · #2 07-30-2010, 10:39 PM

One thing about the gigantea that has me a little concerned is that it is a small plant, 4.5" pot, and due to this small size the two yellow wilting leaves are basically touching the bark mix. The two base leaves that are wilting has what appears to be a single small root directly on top of each of those two leaves. So my question is: Is this normal aging or since both bottom leaves are dying at the same time could it be due to touching the bark mix?

jrodpad · #3 07-30-2010, 11:06 PM

Hey GP17,

Pictures will help us understand what's going in with psychopsis. I can tell you that psychopsis totally hate being repotted. If yours was already banged up from shipping and you repotted it upon arival - you can expect it to sulk or fade a bit. Pics will help us narrow in on what's wrong.

I'll leave the phal to those more experienced.

Good luck!

-J

groundpounder17 · #4 07-31-2010, 12:46 AM

Here are some pics of the psychopsis. The one photo of the single leaf is a leaf that was directly beside the one that was easily plucked. By plucked I mean that the entire leaf was easily pulled from the plant

groundpounder17 · #5 07-31-2010, 12:52 AM

The next set of pics are all of the Phal gigantea except for the last which is from the tip of an unidentified orchid that I believe to to be a Phal madonna. Notice how I have the leaf of the gigantea folded back for easier viewing of the yellowing, wilting leaves. The last picture of the leaf tip of the phal madonna is black. I originally thought that was because it was the part of the leaf touching the windowsil

groundpounder17 · #6 07-31-2010, 01:00 AM

In the picture of the two psychopsis spikes side by side notice the differing colors of the nodes. Can anyone clue me in to what this means? I'm not sure why the pictures rotated when I uploaded them, sorry for that. I have some physan 20 that I had been using to clean my blade instruments and handwashing before handling the plants. Should I dilute the physan down and water the plants once monthly with that and if so what ratio of physan 20 to water? I'm sorry for all of the newbie questions.

Rosiefuture · #7 07-31-2010, 01:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by groundpounder17

The next set of pics are all of the Phal gigantea except for the last which is from the tip of an unidentified orchid that I believe to to be a Phal madonna. Notice how I have the leaf of the gigantea folded back for easier viewing of the yellowing, wilting leaves. The last picture of the leaf tip of the phal madonna is black. I originally thought that was because it was the part of the leaf touching the windowsil

Hi, welcome to OB.

I can't help you with the psychopsis but to me things look fine with your Phal. The yellow leaves look like natural ageing to me. The other leaves and roots look very good. I find with a lot of different orchids that they react to repotting by shedding a couple of leaves. Usually doesn't mean they are in trouble and they go on to thrive.

Marion

groundpounder17 · #8 07-31-2010, 02:59 AM

Thanks Marion and Jrodpad! The last picture of the leaf tip was from a phal Madonna (I think) and not my gigantea. Could this black tip be due to the leaf making contact with the windowsill or is likely something else? If it continues to spread up the leaf I'll just trim it and treat it with cinnamon unless there is something else I should do. As I stated earlier I'm mostly concerned about the psychopsis as it appears to be in the worst condition. Again, thanks for the replies! I originally bought the phal Madonna for my wife about 6 mths ago and it came from wal-mart in a pot without drainage. I didn't know any better so I did the 2 ice cubes a week watering as the instructions stated and the plant thrived or at least I thought so. For some reason about 6 wks ago I started looking at orchids on the web and ordered the other two orchids. That was when I realized that I needed to repot the phal madonna so it would have better circulation. I waited for the two new orchids to arrive and I repotted them all at once. Well, upon repotting the phal Madonna I found about 40% root rot and had to do a lot of trimming.

jrodpad · #9 07-31-2010, 01:58 PM

GP17,

Thanks for the pics. The good news is that the buds on the end of the flower spikes look good. They look full - and while it takes a [I]long[I] time for that protobud to turn into a bloom it is definitely a start.

Those black necrotic spots do give me some concern. Are the spots small black dots on the top of the leaf and larger black welts on the underside? In other words, do the spots go right through the leaf to the underside? If so, it could be bacterial brown spot. You can't do anything to reverse the spotting that's already there, but you can inhibit future growth by (i) watering early in the morning so the psychopsis has the whole day to dry out and (ii) don't mist the leaves! It's encouraging that the large Leaf doesn't seem to be afflicted by the brownspot - perhaps this is something that you can contain and save the plant. Was the yellow leaf that fell off covered in the same brownspotting?

You can dilute your physan and include in the regular watering for a while. The bottle suggests 2 tsps per gallon - you might only want to do this once a week for a few weeks and see if it makes any difference. You can use Captan instead. While people also like copper sulfate based fungicides to treat bacterial infections - I wouldn't use it here because you've got new buds forming and copper sulfates can be harmful for the delicate new buds.

Hope this helps.

- J

groundpounder17 · #10 07-31-2010, 04:10 PM

Hi J,

I repotted the gigantea in repotme.com's Phal Bark Multi Purpose Classic Orchid Mix made with Medium Fir Bark, Medium Sponge Rock, Medium Charcoal, and Granite Chips. For the psychopsis, I used repotme.com's Paph & Phrag Imperial Orchid Mix made with Small Monterey Pine Bark, Small Cork Nuggets, Small Hydroton, and Medium Sponge Rock. I have been watering using their Feed Me orchid fertilizer and spraying with Get Off Me after watering. I allow them to dry thoroughly in the sun because I water outdoors but keep my plants indoors. I will start using the physan diluted during watering, but should I get the leaves wet with the physan solution or just water the plant as if I'm only using water, avoiding the leaves?

As to your questions regarding the black spots, I believe that you are correct. If you notice in the first psychopsis photo the black spots are smaller on top and in the third photo, a bottom shot of the broken leaf, the black spots are much larger and more numerous.

What about the second psychopsis photo? This leaf is directly beside and similar to the leaf that was plucked. The leaf in this photo has what appears to be light black splotches on it. Should I be concerned? As I stated earlier the plant arrived in the condition.

What about the two spikes having the different color nodes? Does this necessarily mean anything?

Last question, Are the leaves of psychopsis always more ridid and brittle? The many of the leaves on my psychopsis are splitting and/or broken.

Sorry for all of the questions and added info such as potting mixes but I thought this may be of some use in treating the orchids.