Help Needed With Dying(?) Phal!

[crastogi]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post here on the board, please take it easy on me!

My girlfriend got what appeared to be a phalaenopsis orchid from a close friend of hers about 5 months ago. It was very healthy and had 2 flower spikes full of healthy flowers and some new buds that were just opening up. The plant was doing fine for the first few weeks, but about a month and a half after the last bud opened, the flowers wilted and started falling off. I understand that this is normal, but what's worse is that the leaves began to shrivel up and turn yellow/brown and also started to fall off. She went to some florists and asked around how to take care of the plant, but it seemed like she was taking are of it correctly. 3 leaves have fallen off since, and another one looks like its ready to fall off.

She's had trouble with keeping plants before, so she recently asked me to take care of it and try to save it. I've never taken care of orchids before, so I tried doing some research on how to address specific conditions that I am noticing with the plant. However, most of the suggestions I found were conflicting or too generic - that's when I came here! I've posted inline pictures of the plant below. I took out some of the moss only on one side because I did not want to disturb the plant too much.

Here is some more info on how the plant was taken care of before I got it:

• My gf used ice cubes to water it. I stopped doing this, because I think it makes no sense for a tropical plant to be near an ice cube
• It was placed near a window but away from direct sunlight.
• We both live in prewar buildings in NYC, so there is a lot of steam heat in the winter.

Some questions:

• Is moss the optimal medium for these plants?
• Does it need orchid fertilizer?
• Why are the leaves so shriveled up?
• Does the plant need more water? When I took out the moss the medium was pretty dry. Should I drench the whole pot and let it dry out?
• Do I need to cut the old, dead roots?
• Are its current roots, especially the one sticking out of the pot, healthy?

Whats wrong with it!?? I don't know what to do.

[silken]

Welcome. It is severely dehydrated for sure. That can be caused by several different things. Lack of water or no roots so it can't take any moisture up. I would remove it from the pot, or pull more moss away and see what the root condition is first. The one outside the pot looks healthy. There are several recent Phal posts on here with info given on culture and a sticky in the beginner discussions called The Phal Abuse Ends Here, that would be worth browsing thru.

You are wise to discontinue the ice cubes as of course a tropical plant is not subject to ice in its natural habitat. Moss is OK, but often difficult to control how wet or dry it is. Many prefer something else such as bark or a mix of moss and bark. The medium size bark beeps the medium more open and moss retains a bit of moisture. A clay pot is fine. I prefer clear plastic pots as the roots seem to like the light (they get it in nature as they cling to trees). And I can see how wet the media is and how the roots are with a clear pot. Healthy roots are green when wet and a silvery colour when dry. The plant should be watered and flushed thoroughly with water, then drained well and allowed to be nearly dry through to the bottom of the pot before watering again.

If you have some healthy roots, I would suggest giving this a 30 minute soak to try and rehydrate it. Then decide how you want to pot it up.

[turock]

Welcome to the board! I really hope we can help you and your orchid. I'll be echoing a lot of Silken's excellent advice, and hopefully offer some additional pointers.

The reason you see a lot of conflicting advice on the internet, and even on this board, is because your growing conditions make a big difference on how you should care for your plant. Growing orchids in humid, warm environments requires different methods than growing them in cold, dry environments, for example. We'll try to give you some pointers about what these plants prefer, then you will need to find how best to provide those conditions in your own specific situation.

Originally Posted by crastogi

Some questions:

• Is moss the optimal medium for these plants?
• Does it need orchid fertilizer?
• Why are the leaves so shriveled up?
• Does the plant need more water? When I took out the moss the medium was pretty dry. Should I drench the whole pot and let it dry out?
• Do I need to cut the old, dead roots?
• Are its current roots, especially the one sticking out of the pot, healthy?

Whats wrong with it!?? I don't know what to do.

Like Silken pointed out, this plant's leaves are shriveled because it is severely dehydrated. Judging by the photos and your description of the dry moss, I'd bet it's due to under-watering. Several of the visible roots are dead, either from drying out or from cold shock, due to ice cubes. (Again, kudos on putting those ice cubes to rest!) The greyish-greenish roots are alive, but they look very wrinkled, a sure sign that they aren't receiving enough moisture or humidity. We'd have to see what is lurking inside the pot to help you know whether the buried roots are still functional, though.

You should absolutely repot the plant. Get rid of all the old moss. Old potting medium can break down and cause toxicity, so it's good to repot at least every two or three years. Dead roots will rot and can cause your plant to get sick, so cut off every part of a root that looks dead. Dead roots inside the pot are squishy or hollow. Outside the pot, they are brown and feel like dried up twigs. Be sure your scissors are sterilized with alcohol or flame to avoid introducing diseases.

Your choice of growing medium is highly dependent on your environment and habits. If you love to water, or keep your plants pretty humid, I'd recommend a bark mixture (I use an orchid bark mix I buy at Lowes for cheap). If you forget to water your plants, or struggle to get humidity, mix sphagnum moss in with the bark. I agree with Silken, that keeping a phal healthy in pure moss is difficult for most of us, although some do it successfully. Do a quick search in this board on the subject and you'll find some fun and informative debates! Another option is semi-hydroponic, which you can also find a lot of info about on this board.

I always recommend clear plastic pots to beginners, because it helps you get a good visual sense of when your plant needs water. Phalaenopsis like to be absolutely drenched, even soaked, and then allowed to dry out almost completely before the next drenching. Since phals grow bare-rooted on trees in the wild, they need to have air circulation around their roots. You can punch extra air-holes into the pot to provide that ventilation. Then, you can provide heavy waterings with less danger of drowning those roots.

Focus on getting the plant re-hydrated after its repot. Soak it, as Silken suggested, then get in the habit of drenching and drying. Water only when you don't see condensation on the inside of the pot, or when you don't feel moisture an inch into the medium. Once you've learned to read the plant's water levels, begin giving it fertilizer.

I prefer to use fertilizer that is balanced or that has a higher nitrogen content to promote leaf and root growth. There is a raging debate about whether or not orchids can benefit from fertilizers derived from urea. To be on the safe side, I buy an inexpensive brand of non-urea-derived fertilizer, again, from Lowes. Depending on your watering schedule, you'll fertilize every three waterings, or so. I fertilize at a quarter strength dilution every week: "weakly, weekly".

I won't lie, this phal looks pretty sick. But you seem like a 'plant person' and you are on the right track to saving it. Even if this one doesn't pull through, go buy yourself another and discover why we orchid people tend to go a little overboard with these fascinating plants!

[campchi]

The above posts have been given precise direction. I would submerge the entire plants 30 min to an hour daily. Since it's getting cold these days, soak it in the morning to allow it dry completely by night time. Also, adding seaweed or kelp will help to promote root growth. Hope this helps.

[Orchid Whisperer]

I agree with most of the advice given by Silken and Turock above. I'll add a little of my own.

Your initial clean-up should include removing all the old moss and removing dead roots. Any tools (scissors, etc.) should be cleaned and sterilized before and after use; flame & cool the cutting tips, or use bleach & rinse well (alcohol kills many bacteria or fungi, but is not effective for killing viruses). Dead roots are brown or black and feel soft or hollow; you may be able to even break these off of the plant without cutting. Live roots are firm - if exposed to air and light they will look silvery when dry, and will turn green when wet; down in the moss, live roots may be white, yellow, sometimes light brown. With few roots, if there is any doubt whether the root is alive, leave it on the plant.

Since the plant is so dehydrated, before repotting I would do this for a few days. Tuck the roots in a glass or jar or something similar. Fill the jar with water, covering the roots only, not the leaves, soak 15 to 30 minutes, then drain. Do this at least daily, several times a day if you can. In a few days to a couple weeks, the leaves and roots will look better and more hydrated (but probably not perfect). After this recovery, you can repot.

I am normally a big fan of growing Phalaenopsis in bark or bark & charcoal, in a terracotta clay pot. In a dry NYC steam-heated apartment, mixing in up to 25% new sphagnum moss with 75% bark in the top 1/3 of the pot would be a good idea, as would using a plastic pot with good drainage. Lower 2/3 of the pot, use all bark, or bark mixed with something relatively inert, like charcoal or even styrofoam chunks or packing peanuts.

Fertilizer is less important than water right now. Fertilizers which contain urea may be more available than urea-free fertilizers, and I have successfully used urea-based fertilizers (Miracle Gro and others) for decades. There is also no problem with urea-free, so use what you are comfortable with. When you do use fertilizer (after you start seeing new root and leaf growth), use weak fertilizer at 1/4 to 1/8 the recommended strength, not more than once a week.

This plant should recover. Good luck with it!

[Reeses]

I'm one of the weirdos who likes to use moss. As a grad student, I am not at my house often and I don't have time to water everything every few days. But, I have also experienced a lot of rot from things in pure moss, so I mix moss and bark. I also make sure to use AA New Zealand moss, because the strands are long and fluffy and don't clump up like the cheap stuff they use for orchids at Lowes or Home Depot.

I find orchids that have been packed so prettily like yours often have WAY too much moss for the pot size. It completely cuts off the air flow and smothers the plant with water.

As far as recovery, I agree with everything said above! It could be a difficult process. But, if you're willing to take the time and experiment with what works for you, you could have a happy plant!

[estación seca]

Phals do grow very well in semi-hydroponic conditions, but they should be healthy and in active root growth when making the change. Don't try it with a struggling plant. The others here have given great advice. I hope you become a hero.

[crastogi]

Hey guys,

Thank you so much for the informative replies! Ive been going through some of the old board posts (stickies and stuff) and I've really learned quite a bit.

So here are some updates - I tried the drenching method for the past month and the results have been great so far. The roots have plumped up and the leaves have stopped browning and really perked up. I'm working up the courage to repot and cut out all the dead roots. I'll keep you posted on what I do and how things progress!