help! My new Phal is wilting :(

[rehric00]

How often are you watering it? I let mine dry out quite a bit between waterings. I only water once every week and a half, give or take. Mine has been in bloom since Mid January. I have not looked for a root ball for fear it will end its blooming cycle. I have pics posted in the Beginners section if you would like to see

[rehric00]

If you repot you might loose the flowers and the spikes, but you will save the plant. How often are you watering it? I only water mine once every week and a half or so. It has been in bloom since mid Jan. I have pics posted in the beginners forum. called "energizer phal" Mine is also in moss but I hesitate to repot at this point. Maybe you can just loosen the moss and take some out. See how it does. If its flowers drop, then repot in a mix with wood chips and charcoal. You can get it at Lowe's or other dept stores. Good luck!

[Marisol]

I have only watered it once in the almost three weeks that I've had it for. I will definitely check out those pics. thanks a lot!

[silken]

Quite often if you make an extreme change in its potting media it will suffer as it can't adapt that fast. It might be a good idea just to remove some of the moss and add some medium bark chunks. That will ensure that there are open spaces for the roots to breathe. From your first photos it looks like along the outside there are good healthy roots. So you are lucky to have caught it before they are all bad. Cut off any mushy soft ones right up to healthy root. If you leave the bad stuff, it may spread rot further. You can dip the ends in regular brown Listerine (yes, the mouthwash kind) or some cinnamon, or hydrogen peroxide before re-potting. Lots of good home remedies. Most Phals don't get too upset, so long as you are not roughing the plant up while re-potting. And it could mean the chance to bloom again in the future whereas if you wait till the blooms are done, it could be too late.

I know lots of people don't like moss, but mine are all potted in about 60% to 70% moss with some med. bark chunks and often some charcoal or large perlite. The roots are great. You need to figure out what works in your environment. If you do opt to use some moss as a transition for it, you could always change out to all bark later.

A word of caution about the orchid mixes found in the likes of Walmart and Home Depot. they are often much too fine for Phals and most other orchids other than some terrestrials. so you may want to go to a place that specializes in orchid mixes or order some from rePotme Orchid Supplies - Orchid Mix - Orchid Pots - Orchid Care - Orchid Fertilizer. If it is in loose moss, it can likely survive till your order arrives provided you removed the rotten roots.

[JerseyGirlBecky]

the vitamins, or that blue stuff, worries me a little. It does need to be mixed in water. However you do not know what kind of fertilizer it is? They do need some but very little and very light. Most are a quarter teaspoon to a Gal of water?

[Marisol]

Well, the lady called it vitamins. She said to mix it at a quarter of teaspon per 5 gal of water rate.

[Marisol]

Okay, so i decided to take off some of the moss, and i discovered some of the bottom leaves are yellowing most of the roots were perfectly fine and firm, i only had to trim very little, and they were a green color.

I also want to repot and i'm thinking of using the Phalaenopsis Monterey Imperial Mix from repotme.com which also has some moss, so maybe I should completely change the media? Also, should i cut off the spikes in full bloom? I've watched some of the videos and read some of the helpful tips on repotme.com and according to them, my Phal should be drying it's spikes already or at least starting to, but why are the leaves yellow? Here are some pics of them Any ideas? please?

[silken]

Some people including myself cut the spikes back just above one of the nodes and they quite often grow another branch from there and bloom again. If the roots are very good and most of the leaves nice and firm and green, then you can try this. Otherwise if you think the plant needs to recover, I would cut them down. I can't really see the last two photos very well. I thought in previous photos the leaves looked a nice green?? Most healthy phals have 3 to 5 leaves and the older ones at the bottom do die off. So if this is the case, they could just be yellowing and dying. Or is the crown partially buried in moss. Repotme.com has good mixes from what I hear, so if it says its for Phals, it is likely a good choice. I have never used their mix, but I read of others on OB who do.

[Paul Mc]

I love RePotme.com's media mixes and use them exclusively. I have not tried their Imperial mixes however, but I may try their phal one as the Original mixes are drying way too fast for me at this time. But we are also experiencing 100F and up temperatures.

It's important to realize that phals need to have produced a lot of energy throughout the year to produce even one bloom. If your phal is suffering (not many good roots, all the leaves wilting, leathery or turning colors, etc...) then it is commonly advised to cut the bloom spikes off so your phal can focus it's energy on saving itself. I learned this the hard way, lol... This is part of the reason why most people cut their bloom spikes back down regardless of if it has dried out or not.

With that having been said, some phal species can rebloom off of the old growth and you are best advised to leave the old growth intact. But most phal species this is not true. It really depends what your specific phal is or was bred with. Which if it's bought from a grocery store or home depot type store then you may never know but chances are good it's not one of those species that you need to keep it on.

I have several that have kept their bloom spike so last year I decided to do a test to see what would happen. Those that kept the spike only produced 4 or 5 flowers total, and they were a bit smaller than the previous years. Those that I cut the spikes off of produced between 8 to 10 flowers and the flowers seemed just as large of the previous years. I do not have any that I believe come from the species where you should keep the spike on.

If your roots are healthy and appear to be actively growing then I would not be too concerned about yellow and wilting leaves as long as they are on the bottom. As silken mentioned, this is the natural growing process.