Limp Leaves and Some - Orchid Board

Orchid_Granddaughter · #1 01-29-2011, 10:39 AM

I am a beginner at all this Orchid business. I have a phal, as pictured in the photos.

I have a few questions about it so I thought I'd just lay it all out.

My first concern is that the leaves have begun to wilt and go limp, and I'm not sure why.
Second, I'm quite sure it needs to be repotted and I'm not sure where to start with that. I isn't getting anymore buds, but it is still in bloom, and has been since August.
Third, the flower stem, as you can see, is very long, and when I do repot it, am I supposed to cut it back? Other websites suggest cutting it back to 1". Is there a specific way to do this?

Sorry for the bombardment of questions, I hope you can help, and thanks in advance!

Paul Mc · #2 01-29-2011, 10:53 AM

The first thing I noticed is that the saucer you are using to catch water allows the water to sit in the pot. This is a no-no. You need to elevate the pot out of the saucer so that the bottom of the pot does not become waterlogged. That could be part of the reason why your phal is doing poorly.

Another issue could be the lack of or too much light at some point. Since the leaves look green enough and not really red except where the new growth is coming from the base, your light may be sufficient.

Another consideration would be temperature. Is it in a cold draft or warm draft? While you want air circulation, cold and warm drafts can damage the plant.

I would remove the orchid from the pot, buy some good phal potting mix such as the ones offered on RePotme.com (and they have instructional videos on repotting there as well). When repotting, cut off all old and damaged roots, then lightly dust the cuttings with cinnamon (regular old store bought) to prevent opportunistic diseases and infections. From what I can see in the picture, it appears there is a brown root that may be dead. You can tell dead or dying roots from the rest because they are either mushy or dried up (brownish in color and hollow). If they are not dried up, hollow or mushy, do not remove as they still could be actively growing.

In regards to the stem, you can cut it down to your preference, but generally I think they suggest 1 inch. One word of caution though, some phal's grow new blooms off of the old stems. It would be best to wait until the stem has dried up and died off before you cut it as you may prevent more blooms that way.

I think the best thing you could do right now is to repot it, remove the dead roots, lower the light on it for the time being while it attempts to recover, really regulate your watering schedule to ensure that the medium gets just a teensy bit dry between waterings, and perhaps try something like Dyna-Gro ProTekt very lightly in the water to help the plant recover from the environmental stresses it has obviously endured.

This is just my opinion, and hopefully others will be able to chime in as well with theirs. Between one of us on this board, we're bound to give you some solid advice for your particular growing habits that you can use.

Best of luck!

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #3 01-29-2011, 12:54 PM

Also keep in mind that Phals do not grow upright in the wild.

Phalaenopsis cornu cervi | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Video: Phalaenopsis in situ | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Orchid_Granddaughter · #4 01-30-2011, 09:51 AM

So at this point it does not matter that it still has flowers? It is ok to repot? I inherited this orchid from my nanna, so I wasn't sure what the roots and things looked like so I investigated... it definitely needs repotting and definitely needs new material. I just wanted to thank you for your helpful advice, I appreciate it greatly.

Paul Mc · #5 01-30-2011, 09:59 AM

Absolutely no problem Orchid Granddaughter! That's what this forum is all about, people helping people with their orchids.

It does not matter if the orchid has flowers or not in regards to repotting. The standard recommendation is to wait until the orchid has dropped it's flowers due to two reasons: 1.) ease of breaking the stem and flowers off even when being extremely cautious, & 2.) easy to damage the root system which causes premature leaf drop and/or flower drop or otherwise stunting the plant. If the roots and media are in dire bad shape and need immediate help, then I'd say repot immediately. Otherwise, I'd just wait and adjust your watering to ensure that the broken down medium is not waterlogged or otherwise overly wet all the time.

One trick that helps if you are going to repot is to soak the pot for a very short time to help loosen up the medium and the roots. Just go very slowly, make sure all the medium is off of the roots, and then rinse the roots. Just be very careful not to get any water splashed on the leaves. As King of Orchids stated, phal's grow upside down in nature which generally prevents water from getting into the folds of the leaves. Phal's are especially prone to rot when water gets in there as a result.

Paul Mc · #6 01-30-2011, 10:00 AM

On a side note, if you smell or see fungus' or molds you should probably repot immediatley so the old and dead roots do not become infected.

sii · #7 01-30-2011, 10:29 AM

I don't know if you live in Ontario, but if you live anywhere near Mississauga Humber Nurseries (I think highway 27) they have potting medium. I found coco husk and long fibre orchid moss that seems to be working for me. It was about $10. Another good place is Sheridan Nurseries.

Orchid_Granddaughter · #8 01-30-2011, 01:23 PM

Well I have repotted the orchid, to my dismay it had been planted in SOIL, no wonder the poor thing wasn't doing well. I bought some general "orchid potting mix" as that is all I could find in my area, it's a bark mixture. I also got some "orchid food" which gets mixed in with water every second watering.

I clipped away all the dead brown roots, and noticed a few new ones that had begun to sprout, which must be a good sign.

I also bought a pot for it that has air holes on the bottom as well as on the sides to provide ventilation.

Here's to hoping that it bounces back, I think it will be much happier in the bark mixture and without all the dead roots.

Paul Mc · #9 01-30-2011, 04:22 PM

It should be much happier, and it's good to know it's producing new roots as well. Yes, the soil is very bad so it's probably for the best that you did switch it out. A bark mixture should be just fine. As for the fertilizer, the general rule of thumb is to use 1/4th of the recommended dosage on the label and water the plant (with fertilizer) weakly weekly. The weekly part depends upon your specific environment and how fast the pot dries out though, but it's a general rule of thumb.