Flowers drying out.. - Orchid Board

rars · #1 11-23-2012, 04:46 AM

One and a half year ago I bought two orchid plants (Phaleonopsis) from a flower shop in town
They were already with flowers so I enjoyed them until after they fell off and then start to notice that both plants after flowering started dying off. One of then definitely dried out but the second one I kind of revived, after repotting it & applying some natural fertilizers for 4 months. My work was rewarded this year - some months ago - when it started developing 1 stem. Nowadays the plant I have has 6 large and 1 small leaf + one small plant with already 4 small leaves (I have read that it's called KEIKI- a vegetative form of orchid propagation); 2 stems with 10 unopened flowers.
I am very fond of my plant and I am really concerned because: 1st I noticed the roots were rotted and had to replant it; 2nd, the flowers instead of opening are acquiring the color they are supposed to take when open and mature, but then I see with terror that they are drying off from the flower stalk. What should I do? Is there any way to see at least of open.
I live in Russia, so, weather conditions differ from my sunny Cuba where I had 4 types of orchids in my yard. Could you please help me solve this out?
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Ray · #2 11-23-2012, 09:53 AM

The way to prevent root rot is to make sure that the potting medium retains moisture, but without restricting air flow to the roots. orchids do a lot of their gas exchange through them rather than their leaves, so that's important.

If the plant is stressed due to a poor, suffocating potting medium, it might abort its buds, but there may be other possible reasons:

If the plant has seen a sudden blast of cold air, or warm dry air - pretty much anything that is a sudden change from what it had been seeing - it can cause "bud blast".

If the relative humidity is too low, they may desiccate and fail.

Going along with a dry environment is the fact that mites thrive under warm/dry conditions, and they can cause bud loss as well. You'd probably see little webs associated with those.

rars · #3 11-23-2012, 09:59 AM

Thank you for your comments Ray.
It has nothing to do with sudden temperature changes. I keep then in a 18-20 degrees environment.
Humidity can be the thing affecting us.
Even though I moisture the leaves and the soil, it gets dry too often.
So either I low the temperature or...?
What would you suggest, Ray?