Sick phals.

[Zoey]

Looking closer at the one phal that I sent a pic of, the damage seems to be spreading. Should I destroy the plants or start treatment immediately? No sign of insects. Is this a danger to my other plants? Should they be isolated? Thanks

[Zoi2]

Where did you post your pictures, I'm not seeing them.
Joann

[Zoey]

Sent them yest. Having trouble learning to send and receive. Pics went through and received one reply.

[WhiteRabbit]

pics here:
Virus or bad culture

sorry, I can't help good luck

[Paul Mc]

When I saw the first picture I thought sunburn, but when I saw the second picture I started wondering if it's not an overwatering issue. Is that sphag that the phal is packed into? Perhaps the sphag is not allowing enough air flow to the roots because it's packed in too tightly and/or the sphag is holding moisture in the interior when the outside feels brittle dry.

Regardless, in my humble opinion, I would remove them from the rest of your plants immediately. I would think that lowering the amount of light it is recieving might be a good thing as well so it's more focused on healing as opposed to synthesizing the light. You might also try something like DynGro Pro-Tekt which is supposed to help the plant adapt/recovery from environmental stresses.

You should probably take the phal out of the pot and examine it's roots as well. The roots are almost always a tell-tale. If you can, post the pics of the roots as this might help people give a better determination for you.

[Zoey]

Thank you. Yes, I use moss. Containers are net pots that sit inside a clear plastic pot from rePotme. I don't like to pack tightly. Also realized the water in this unit comes through a softener. Have switched to bottled water. I have separated the plants in case it's a fungus. Should I cut off damaged leaves?

[Paul Mc]

I would let the leaves be until they are on their last leg, but that is just me personally. When you do finally cut the leaves off, be sure to sterilize your cutting equipment first and then dust the cutting with cinnamon (the regular kind you buy for cooking at the grocery store). With your phal already weak, it is going to be even more prone to rots, molds, fungus' and bacteriums.

For sure, the softner in the water could have done that to your phal, but aware that bottled water sometimes is not any better for them. I believe there was thread on here somewhere about that. My suggestion would be to start using distilled water and adding a very weak amount of fertilizer to it every week or every other week. Likewise, use the DynaGro Pro-Tekt weakly weekly until it recovers. You really should investigate the roots as well and clean them up. Perhaps spray them with Listerine (plain) and then rinse them in water to help remove any bad things going on with them. You might want to consider soaking them in a rooting compound/water mixture for about an hour as well to help your plant promote more strong roots.

In regards to your sphag/moss usage, sometimes phal's don't appreciate going from a medium such as bark mixes to a sphag mix. For whatever reason switching mediums can be devestating to them. I don't know if this is what you did (either after a period of time in your home or from getting it out of the vendor's pot into your mix at home).

And one more small note about the use of sphag for phal's, it really depends upon your own personal and unique situation what works best. For some people the sphag does not work for various reasons, and for other people a bark mix such as the one RePotme.com sells works best. I personally have never had any success with sphag mixes, only bark mixes. Again, everyone's growing situation dictates a different variation and you will just have to experiment to find what works best for you and your environment.

[Zoey]

Thank you for the advice. I will try one suggestion on one plant and try something different on the other. That's the way I can learn. They are not expensive plants soooo--- let's try and see.