Phal with yellow wrinkled leaves and spots on blooms

[vladkes]

Hi,
You know how some people are born with a green thumb, well I’m quite the opposite. So no matter how much I love orchids I never dared to buy one. Be that as it may, I got a beautiful Indigo Phal as a gift 2 months ago. I was also told that all it needs is 3 ice cubes once a week.

I first noticed a problem a week or two ago, the leaves started to look limp and wrinkled a bit, also dark spots appeared on blooms. And it just got worse, the leaves started to yellow, and the blooms are falling off.
I’ve read some posts and I am still at a complete loss of what is causing this. The plant was somewhat close to the window, could this be sunburn? Or are the black dots sign of fungus? I was using 4 ice cubes a week to keep the plant watered, could this be over/under watering or maybe the ice cubes was not the way to go? I looked at the roots on the inner pot, some are a bit yellowish but most are light green and there’s no odor.

Attached are some current pics. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I really hope it still can recover.

[silken]

Your blooms may just be spent and time to die off. I don't know if you realize that the indigo colour is not a natural colour. It likely has had dye injected in the base of the bloom stem. Next year if you get it to bloom, the blooms will be white, which is its natural colour.

The Just Add Ice is a gimmick by a company to sell Phals to people who don't know know how to care for plants and will likely toss the plant when its done blooming. Phals are tropical plants and where they live in the wild, would never see ice or snow. Putting ice on the top of the media and possibly on surface roots will harm any roots that come in contact with the ice cube or ice cold water.

Your plant looks severely dehydrated and may be getting too much sun depending which way your window faces and not enough water. They are fairly low light orchids. It would be better to water the surface of the pot under the tap and let water run through the pot liberally. Drain well before placing back in the ornamental pot. Do not water again until the media in the bottom and centre of the pot are almost dry.

Often when Phals come home from the store they are in a lot of moss which is usually too wet and will cause the roots to rot. It's a good idea to re-pot it into a mix of bark and moss, or coco chunks or similar. It does look like yours might be in bark. Use a pot that is just large enough for the root mass. Any larger will encourage root rot. Remove any mushy and dead roots. Healthy roots are silver when dry and green when wet. I see some dry reasonably healthy roots thru your pot although they are becoming dehydrated it seems. Also never let water sit in the crown of the leaves as crown root can occur. I hope this has helped you keep this one alive.

[WhiteRabbit]

After two months, the blooms just may be finished.

I also agree with the other advice from silken.

Also see http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ends-here.html

[vladkes]

Yes, that's what I thought too, that it was just blooms' time to go, so I didn't worry too much until the leaves turned yellow. I followed silken's advice, the bark was looking completely dry even though I put the ice in only yesterday, so I let the water run thru. I'll also get some bark/moss mix and will try to repot it soon, wish me luck. Thank you so much for your help!

[AmandaR83]

One more note: Orchids typically don't bloom Blue like that. It's basically a dye they fed the plant as they tricked it into blooming. Expect white flowers on its next blooming