Broken Phal Leaf

[Mere313]

I'm so mad and upset. While retrieving a binder from a shelf over my desk, some pads of paper fell off and hit one of my Phals, causing a huge tear in one of the leaves. Is there anything I can or should do? Or just leave it be? The tear goes across the leaf to the center spine (~1") and then up the spine towards the tip (~1.5").

[bil]

If it were mine I would see two alternatives. You can dust the wound surfaces with cinnamon or a fungicidal powder, and wait and see. The tear might be so severe that it will cause further damage..

Or you can say "Heck" and just cut the leaf off slightly below the tear and dust that.

[jcec1]

I have few orchids that have fully pristine leaves, they always seem to be getting things dropped on them or dropped themselves. I just keep a close watch on them for any infection setting in, if I do see it I will trim to healthy tissue otherwise I just leave them be as I don't mind scrappy looking leaves.

[wintergirl]

If it were mine I would put some cinnamon powder on the edges of the cut and leave the leaf intact.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Nothing wrong with cinnamon on a fresh cut, but if the cut has dried, the cinnamon won't adhere to the dried cut, and may not be all that helpful.

You can probably just leave it as-is, which is what I do with most of my leaf breaks. My plants spend more than half of the year outdoors, so they always have battle scars here and there. I only cut if I see a disease (bacteria or fungus) starting.

[wintergirl]

In the picture it looked like a fresh cut to me, but right if it's dried then forget about cinnamon

[malteseproverb]

I closed the window on one of my mini-phal's leaves and, though it has some scars, it's been completely fine. There's a leaf hanging on by a thread on one of my dendrobiums but it's still entirely green. Plants are resilient that way!