New phaleonopsis hybrid orchid with yellow spots on leaves

[PeggyO]

Hi everyone ,

I am hoping for some advice, I became the proud owner of a phal orchid in early October. Soon after receiving the gift I started researching care tips and came across this site.

Since then I have stopped over watering by letting the rots become silvery green in color and re-potted into a better drainage plastic pot. I also started spraying the aerial roots once daily. While re-potting I cut three roots off that were brown and my orchid let me know it was very happy by growing two new leaves and more roots.

I thought I would try rePotme's feed me plant food for the first time at the end of last week and when I came home today I noticed two quarter sized yellow spots on the bottom two leaves.

I did not see anything on the forum where the only visual problem was yellowing leaves, am I still over watering? I know on other plants yellow leaves usually mean over-watering. Could it be the fertilizer? Or something different all together?

--worried but not desperate

[WhiteRabbit]

I don't think the spots were caused by fertilizer ...

It could be possible the bottom leaves are naturally dying - tho usually they go one at a time, it's not impossible for two at the same time.

It's possible that the plant was stressed from over-watering prior to your correcting that. Orchids can be slow to show symptoms.

A photo or two would be helpful. You need to have five posts before you can use links, tho. I think you can upload photos directly to your post using the attachment button (paperclip) before five posts (sorry if I'm wrong about that).

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ng-photos.html

[PeggyO]

Thanks for the info, I have attached two pictures of both bottom leaves, the yellow area is not as firm as the dark green.

Will the leaves heal themselves or will they have some scarring? (if they are just showing signs of abuse and its not another issue, of course)

[Bill U.]

From what I can tell, it appears to me that this may just be the die-off of the bottom two leaves that were stressed from the over-watering and now are reaching the end of their life cycle. I would not say that you have any significant reason to be concerned right now. Of course, what and see if your plant get's sad or unhealthy looking, but if the yellowing spreads evenly throughout those bottom two leaves without spreading to the other leaves, I think you should be fine...

[violetta]

Usually, old leaves that die naturally, begin yellowing from the tip to the stem. Leaves that start yellowing from the base are not a good sign.
I can't tell from the photos, but maybe you have potted the plant a bit deeply and water gets trapped between the stem and those leaves?
Keep an eye on it.