Slack leaves on Phaleonopsis

[Edwin Reffell]

How long does it take for slack leaves on Phaleonopsis to revive? I think it is due to underwatering and cold temperature exposure. There are lots of healthy roots and no signs of any disease. One Phaleonopsis has 2 large slack leaves and a new leaf coming in the centre. The stems were completely dry so I cut them off at the base. The other has 5 large slack leaves. Its 3 stems are mostly dark green. 2 of them have 2 very small leaves growing at the nodes of both stems. I found these 2 Phaleonopsis when I took newspapers to the recycling room this evening. I have watered them and hope they will revive soon. The leaves are green and the many roots are too, though I see 3 that are more yellow in colour and one of those looks shrivelled. Should I take them all out and remove the yellow and shrivelled ones? The pictures are not very good.

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[Abbie9]

Although these plants look severely dehydrated, their roots seem healthy, so it should be possible to revive them. It looks like they are in a bark mixture right now (yes?); usually when I get a rescue, especially a really thirsty one, the first thing I do is repot it into soaked sphagnum moss so that it has the benefit of a nearly constant moisture supply. Keep it moist all the time until you start seeing signs of revival. Also moving the plant into a humid area such as a bathroom, or even putting a plastic bag over the top to hold in moisture can help quite a bit.

The leaves the plant has right now will never fully regain their turgidity and former height, but they will probably perk up somewhat after a couple of weeks with a decent water supply. New leaves will be normal and healthy, and will also be a sign that you're doing it right. Be patient and give lots of love

I wouldn't remove any leaves at the moment unless they are clearly yellowing and ready to fall off.

[WhiteRabbit]

I wouldn't expect the foliage to "revive" as damaged as they are. (Tho I may be wrong) . If roots are good, the plant may well survive, and new growth should be fine.

[Wild Orchid]

If you spray undersides of the leaves, they might regain some health but I wouldn't hold my breath as others mentioned.
Also placing a plastic bag over the plant or a sandwich zip bag over each leaf provides some local green effect and helps with moisture retention.

In a past, I've seen a few limp leaves to plump up but overall, Phals prefer to grow the new ones.

[Edwin Reffell]

I shall concentrate on new leaf growth. Can the ones up the sides of the spikes be keikis? If they are is there anything special I should do?
What about the roots? Most are fine but there are one or two that look bad. Should I remove them now or later?
While googling on slack leaves yesterday I opened a page from orchidgeeks by mistake. Also this time that site's page contained a trojan. That is the second time it has happened and the last time I open any of orchidgeeks' pages. From now on I shall make sure it is not an orchidgeek page before I open anything I find googling.

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[jai_star]

If you want your Phal to survive

1- cut off all spikes

2- use the spag and bag method

This should revive the plants

[RosieC]

I don't think there is any need for sphag and bag as you have plenty of roots, that's a good method for getting rootless plants to survive while they can't draw up moisture and until they grow roots.

I agree with others that the existing leaves are unlikely to revive, I've had some slightly improve but still stay limp. New leaves should grow well though if you've corrected the problems that led to the limp leaves in the first place.

[Edwin Reffell]

If the orchids survive it will be enough.

I have never used spaghnum moss and have read too much negative information about it to start now. Whenever I have put plastic bags over plants they have turned mouldy even though I put holes in them. As a result I have never succeeded propagating cuttings that way. Instead I put them in water nowadays and they root quickly enough to pot them.

What about the things that look like leaves up the spikes? Can they be keikis?

Also should I take out the roots and remove the few that are not good now or later?

I thought I would wait a bit before I cut off the spikes as I want to see what those leaf-like things become. It would be fantastic if one turned out to be a keiki as I have never had any up till now.

[Paddle_grl]

I've never had leaves like that "plump up" They usually hang around long enough for the new leaves to form and take over. The old ones just turn yellow and fall off. The orchid's will be fine.

[WhiteRabbit]

I would think that if the roots are good, it should be ok to leave the spike. I don't really know about repotting now ... hopefully some others can advise on that.