Soft and floppy leaves on P. equestris...

[The Mutant]

I'm worried about the Phalaenopsis equestris aurea that came together with my P. equestris rosea and P. schilleriana.

The woman I bought it from told me the that the vendor she had bought it from had kept it too wet, thus some of it leaves were floppy. She had re-potted it and gotten it to start recovering during it's stay with her and then it ended up in my inexperienced hands. She told me to be careful of over watering it since it had been suffering from this before and I thought it wouldn't be a problem (I'm an expert on giving flowers too little water after all ).

I've now had it for a week and have already watered it twice because the medium has looked so dry (no roots are visible unfortunately, they're all hidden by the medium). I watered it yesterday because it started to feel even more floppy than usual and after a couple of hours some of the leaves had regained their relative firmness. But now two of it's lower leaves have started to turn yellow...

I really don't know how to treat it. I want to check the condition of the roots, but I've only had it for a week so it feels like it's too soon and a bit like an overreaction.

In some ways I wish the woman had kept it until it had recovered completely before I bought it. It feels like she had too much confidence in my ability to care for Phals and I really want this one to survive (it's such a big and gorgeous looking aurea!). I would feel very ashamed if I destroyed what she had accomplished to do with it.


Help, please?


EDIT:
I've now uploaded some pictures and also removed it from the pot which was extremely easy due to it not being rooted at all.
The roots appear to be in worse shape than I imagined - I need to remove a lot of the dead roots.

Then what? If I had some root hormones I could use that, but I don't. Put it back in the same pot? Personally, I would like to put it in a smaller pot since the one it has now is too big.

[nenella]

I have had that happen to me too. I would really recommend you to look at the roots. You certainly won't harm it by looking and cutting off any mushy roots and repotting into the same mix (seeing it was recently re potted) Also I find that a soak in rooting hormone helps a lot. I wouldn't worry too much about the lower leaves becoming yellow.
Have you thought of using a skewer to decide if it needs watering or not? & make sure it goes through the middle of the pot as that's where it stays the moistest I would also let it go quite dry before watering (this also encourages root growth)
hope this helps. A photo will also help you get a lot more feedback. Good Luck

[The Mutant]

Thank you nenella! This is why this forum is so good. It didn't even occur to me that I could use a skewer to check whether it's moist or not. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'll take a peek at the roots and see what they look like.

If they look bad and need to be removed I, unfortunately, don't have any root hormones. I'll hope they don't look too awful.

I'll upload a picture but the Phal looks unreasonably healthy until you touch the leaves that is. But maybe it could help.

[camille1585]

The thing is that the medium can look dry from the outside, but still be pretty damp in the center. And that's where a wooden skewer proves useful. If you leave it in the pot all the time you can periodically pull it out to check the moisture. If you are unsure, touch it to your cheek. If it feel cool and damp then wait another day and check again.

And I agree that repotting is the best course of action. Unless it's already the case, use the smallest pot the roots comfortably fit in. Lots of roots in relation to the pot size makes the medium dry out more evenly.

[The Mutant]

So considering the fact that it doesn't have that many healthy roots, should I still plant it in the same medium or should I add more sphagnum to it?
Also, should I remove the yellowish/whitish roots? The ones that are left are all firm and not soft or spongy. The lack of colour only has to do with them not getting any sunlight, right?

Should I try to keep it the medium moist or a tad dry?
I also realized it's no wonder the leaves are floppy considering how many of them there are, plus a sprout, and how few healthy roots there are.

Thanks again nenelle about telling me that letting the Phal dry up for a bit encourage the roots to grow. I had no idea about that.

[The Mutant]

I think I have discovered what's wrong with it.

It looks like fungus, black rot maybe?

Should I throw it? It seems the stem (?), is affected.

[camille1585]

That's the beginning of stem rot. It may not be too far advanced yet. You need to entirely remove those yellow leaves, including the base of the leaf that sort of wraps around the stem (if you understand my explanation. You may need a knife to cut them off properly. If you are lucky the rot has not reached the center of the stem. Once you have bare stem visible, gouge out any rot you see, rinse out with hydrogen peroxide if you have some, and pack the wound with powdered cinnamon.
I have managed to save some Phals that way. But if the rot has progress to the center of the stem, it's usually hopeless.

---------- Post added at 10:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 PM ----------

And even if the main plant doesn't make it, looks like that basal keiki has some roots to it, so there's still hope!

[Merlyn]

Pull those 2 yellow leaves off and throw them away. You also have either a basal keiki or another plant in the same pot. See if it has its own roots and if they are 2 or 3 inches long I would try untangling them VERY carefully from the momma plant and pot it up separately. For the suspected black rot, I don't know that it is but if you have Physan 20 I would use it just in case. I don't know a home remedy for it but I'm sure someone else will jump in with one !

Like I said, Camille just jumped in while I was busy typing !!! I wouldn't use a knife to remove the leaves, I use needle nose pliers to pull ALL of the leaf off of the stem.

[camille1585]

We don't have Physan 20 on this side of the pond...

[Merlyn]

That's ok, you have the home remedy. I DO use cinnamon on open cuts, didn't know about hydrogen peroxide until an after the fact tip at our Monday meeting !!! I lost 2 rupicolous Laelias and my Brassavola cordata to black rot after staying out in a 6 day rain last summer !!!