Very sudden wilting of flowers on a Phal

[Bobits]

I am pretty sure I know what happened... A week ago I had



And now I have



The pink and white phal in the first picture is fine and they are located right next door to each other



My guess is that it had to do with us having a broken furnace for a few days and it got cold -- would this explain it or could it be something else?

The details on my plants: kept at 71 degrees all day in a NE facing window with shutters. The humidity is not too high but I keep all my plants together to create a mini moist zone. I used a chopstick to check on the moisture level within the bark medium and it gets drenched with room temperature tap water every 5 -7 days -- it appeared to require more water when it was in the process of flowering. It is fertilized about 2x per month and liquid seaweed about 1x per month.

The roots look like this



When it first started flowering, - month or two back, the first flower was kind of droopy and I posted a thread. Based on feedback, I upped the watering frequency such that I watered slightly sooner. I also closed off the hearing vent nearby. These two things seemed to solve that problem completely and the original and subsequent flowers all opened up beautifully.

It was doing fine until I noticed the flowers like this today! Any thoughts?

[Orchidgirl83]

Have you had any ripening fruit near it? I have read on here that something the fruit gives off can cause flowers to wilt prematurely.

[Bobits]

No fruit

[silken]

How cold did your home get to and what kind of temps outside? My Phals did fine in the greenhouse which is kept at 55F at night and 65F in the day. But if you had frigid temps outside and it is on the windowsill...

[Bobits]

It was not on a windowsill but near a window (1.5 - 2 feet away) House temperature was down to 56-58. Is it possible that the flowers were done and they all wilted at once? I recall previously that they fall off one at a time, correct?

[silken]

They usually do go one or several at a time. If it was very cold outside, depending on how good the windows are and if they are double or triple glazed, the temps near the window could have been cooler than the main part of the house.

[wintergirl]

Using any air fresheners? They have the same effect that ripening fruit does.

[Bobits]

No air fresheners

[weitoi]

The roots look very healthy and green. I noticed the photo where the flowers were healthy, their stems were close to green, and now that the flowers are withered they are near yellow. I've seen Phal flower stems do that when the flowers are done. It is not usual for them to drop all their flowers at once. Not impossible though.

[ula]

Might be a temperature variation; sometimes mine just blast off when they get a stream of frigid winter air, when someone keeps the front door open for too long, or we decide to "air the house" a little. I would think a week for the flowers to drop on a phal as a natural order of things is way too fast. The blooms on my phals usually last 12-15 weeks, and then they start droping one by one.