Please help me with my phalaenopsis orchid problems about their leaves

[danliz]

Hi everyone,
I am newbie to the forum as well as to orchid. I have no idea what is going on with my orchids.

I just bought two orchids, and here are the problems. There are black stuffs like dust at the base of the orchids. What are they? Are they fungus? One orchid has yellow spots on its leaves (white phalaenopsis). It is too much water or too much sun exposure? Another one has black spots which damage to the leaves (purple phalaenopsis), and back of one of its leaves are purple . It is fungus attack or sun burn? Is it because the leaves received too much sun that it turn red tint or purple? Both orchids don't have healthy root systems or leaves. Their leaves are long and drooping. Why? Is it because of lack of sun? water?....

I also have problem with long leaves and drooping with my denbrobrium which I also attach. Why does this happen?

I also attach another picture which is my seeding orchid. Its leaves are purple too, don't you think so? and why is that? All other orchids have this problem, and the leaves seem want to die out (yellow) without growing new leaf or root.

I do cover them with the hard plastic. The height is about 1m. They don't receive direct sun or morning sun. They can enjoy a bit of afternoon sun.

I live in Indonesia so the weather is pretty hot, and I don't even know when is the raining season or hot season since I just moved here.

Thank you so much for your help in advance.

[danliz]

Hi everyone,
I am newbie to the forum as well as to orchid. I have no idea what is going on with my orchids. I already posted the same post under the phalaenopsis-Hybrid. Since I don't even know if my orchids are hybrid or not. They don't have name tag here so I decide to post another at here.

I just bought two orchids, and here are the problems. There are black stuffs like dust at the base of the orchids. What are they? Are they fungus? One orchid has yellow spots on its leaves (white phalaenopsis). It is too much water or too much sun exposure? Another one has black spots which damage to the leaves (purple phalaenopsis), and back of one of its leaves are purple . It is fungus attack or sun burn? Is it because the leaves received too much sun that it turn red tint or purple? Both orchids don't have healthy root systems or leaves. Their leaves are long and drooping. Why? Is it because of lack of sun? water?....

I also have problem with long leaves and drooping with my denbrobrium which I also attach. Why does this happen?

I also attach another picture which is my seeding orchid. Its leaves are purple too, don't you think so? and why is that? All other orchids have this problem, and the leaves seem want to die out (yellow) without growing new leaf or root.

I do cover them with the hard plastic. The height is about 1m. They don't receive direct sun or morning sun. They can enjoy a bit of afternoon sun.

I live in Indonesia so the weather is pretty hot, and I don't even know when is the raining season or hot season since I just moved here.

Thank you so much for your help in advance.

[Dendy83]

From what I can tell they all need to be repotted, then you can see what the roots look like. But they look very overwatered, the black stuff on the leaves looks to be algae, but the on the very bottom of the first photo, that looks like a part of a leaf that has rotted. Can you wipe the black stuff off the leaves? Or does it stay? Another thing is the leaves should not remain that wet. In the wild they are attached to trees horizontally, so any water drips right off and the leaves stay dry. So in the home we need to be careful to wipe off any water that gets on the leaves, especially if it drips down to the center of the leaves.

Is the hard plastic clear? If it's clear it may be allowing too much sun during the peak sun times. The hard plastic may also be creating a greenhouse and making it way too hot inside the plastic. Can you move the orchids in another window where they won't get so much direct sun? That way you won't have to use the plastic.

[My Green Pets]

1. Black stuff: It looks very superficial. Can you wipe it off? If not it could be fungus.
2. Yellow spots: I dont see any in the photos. Sunburn is usually a big whitish-yellow patch.
3. Black spots: Could be fungus, could also be sun burn.
4. Purple: This could indicate the plant is receiving the maximum light it can tolerate.
5. Unhealthy roots & leaves: One leads to the other. Roots could have either dried out or rotted from overwatering. They must be able to breathe yet be kept moist, allowing to dry out between waterings. Looks like those roots are suffocating in tightly-packed sphagnum. If so, repot in big chunks of fir bark or lava rock with a layer of sphagnum on top.
6. Drooping dendrobium: No idea, hopefully another OB member can help there.
7. Purple seedling: It doesnt look too bad but once again it could be too much light.

With some more history on each plant and more details about light, potting, watering, fertilizing, etc., we may be able to help you figure all this out.

[WhiteRabbit]

I merged your two identical threads

[RandomGemini]

The one with the torn leave with the blackened edges, photo number 4, looks like mechanical damage to me. The plant will drop those leaves on its own when it's ready.

Photo number six is not a phalaenopsis. I think it's a dendrobium, but someone else with more experience might be able to tell you more.

The black stuff you describe could be mold. I have seen mold like this on orchids in stores, and I usually do not purchase these plants. I don't know if it's particularly harmful. My daughter did bring home an orchid that had some black spots on the back of it. I wiped it away with a paper towel soaked in hydrogen peroxide. She still has the plant and nothing seems to be wrong with it, but I'm not an expert.

The yellow spots, given that they are on lower leaves, but not the lowest leaves, makes me think it's a nutrient issue. Are you fertilizing them?

[danliz]

Thank you so much for your kindness reply. I bought them at night so I couldn't see those problems until the next morning. I can't wait to repot them but they are blooming right now so I have to wait. The root systems like I said are horrible. They seem don't have green roots at all. All the roots are either too rotten or too dehydrated. The leaves seem rough so I thought they are dehydrated that why I watered so much on the leaves.

The yellow spots are in the second picture. They second and third leaf.

The back thing at the base, in some part I can wipe it off using a Q tip, but in some part, it is so hard to come off.

I just bought them so I don't know how the seller took care them before.

The whole systems are bad, but the flowers look very pretty. I don't know why.

I will try to clean them up using hydrogen peroxide when I repot them. Can't wait....


That are history of those two new orchids. The seedling orchids, I bought a few when I visited Malaysia. It is about a year now. I have been disturbed them a lot which I shouldn't. The thing is over here, they don't have orchid mix or anything specially about orchids. So when I got them, I took them off from the agar(each orchid had only about one to three leaves, and some were damage. The roots were tangled up and damaged as well) and placed them with a lot moss (don't' know what kind) and a few charcoal (this is the thing that I can find)...After a while, when I was sick, I asked someone to take care for me. He let them dehydrated so bad that when I got back. I was so hurry to water a lot, and I kept doing so until they showed sign of over watering (rotting leaves, roots)...so I re-potted them. This time I used only charcoal, and very little moss. After a while, they seem were not healthy. They grew so slow or no grow at all. I did fertilizer them using grow roots hormone about 4-6 times now over all. I heard charcoal are toxic, and actually it is true. Only two orchids out of five grew one tiny unhealthy root/each. The rest of roots were shrinking up. The leaves were dying out, and no leaves growth. So I repotted them again, this time i used bit of charcoal, a bit of moss, and a lot of tree fern. Let's see what is gonna come. One thing is don't buy seedling orchids, they are so hard to take care or survive. Two of them are already died. I still haven't found out perfect condition for them yet. They seem too dry if I put them up the rack and too wet if I place them down on the floor. agghr...they are just so hard to understand.

[RandomGemini]

I would choose to keep them too dry, over keeping them too wet. Phals like to dry out between waterings.