upside down phalaenopsis?

[GPeach]

Thank you for reading my post and I'm hopeful you'll have an answer.
I have had this medium sized phalaenopsis for 4 years and she's a survivor! What a beautiful will to live and please me. She blooms HUGE clusters every year dispute my abuse and repotting twice.
It started blooming this year the second week in February and it's past mid June and not one blossom has dropped!!!
Is this a record?
But, I noticed the leaves are floppy and wrinkled.
It's always had these crazy roots growing towards the sky! And they look wrinkled now! It doesn't seem to have many roots below in the medium. I've seen where people cut off all the dead "rear" portion of the plant and repot. Is this required at this time?
Is it dying?

[FourN6]

I am no Phal expert despite my love of them. I can't even claim to successfully grow them However, it has been my experience that wrinkled leaves and crazy root growth outside the media can mean things down inside the pot aren't very happy.

Your plant may be ready for another repot once the flowers are done (or sooner if you're concerned). It may very well be time to trim the "rear" as you stated and get those healthy aerial roots into some media. The wrinkled leaves may drop and you will probably experience set-back with new growth but in my opinion that's better than death!

Hopefully someone on this forum with more experience can offer more advise!

[fudJy23]

I wouldn't necessarily call myself an expert on phals either but I think my number that I've kept alive is slowly catching up to the number I've killed.

For flower bloom times, I think it depends on the plant. I have a phal that when I first got it, it had two spikes with blooms. Then the spike grew some more and had more buds. And just when I thought I was going to get a chance to repot, it sent up another spike so I had flowers for about 2 years, at which point, I gave up and repotted.

As to the leaves, well, it is the bottom leaves so it could be that they're time has come. But at some point, especially if it doesn't look like it's improving, you may want to just pull the plant out of its pot to inspect the roots that are planted to make sure you don't have a bunch of rotted roots.

If you do decide to repot and you pot some of those aerial roots, be careful that you don't pack it in and keep it too moist. I ended up killing a phal that way. The aerial roots weren't used to all the moisture and rotted.

[campchi]

I think it's dehydrated, maybe some of the roots have died.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

[Paphluvr]

Usually when the leaves look like this people think that the plant is not getting enough water. That is partially true in that the roots in the pot are probably rotten and cannot take up water. When you are ready to repot you will probably find some sort of "stem" in the lower reaches of the pot with no or rotten roots. This can be removed just below where your good roots appear. Then when you repot, stand the plant more upright (the leaves will still go off to the side) and bury the arial roots in the potting mix. You just want the base of the lowest leaf or two touching the mix. It may take some time to adapt and you may loose a leaf or two, but the plant should rebound.

[GPeach]

THANK YOU ALL for your responses!
I think I'll inspect under the medium just so I have a clear understanding of what I'm dealing with. Sometimes I need a little reassurance. I really have enjoyed this little orchid and it's uncanny way of dealing with me!
Other phals have not been so patient with me. ;-)
I'll post an update.

[GPeach]

UPDATE!
She is worse now. I'm going to transplant her again. somehow the roots under the media are rotting. I try SO HARD not to over water! I don't get it.
My question today is...
should I chop off the spike with that load of blossoms? Will that help put energy back into growing more roots or would it be too much stress?
I cannot believe that the blossoms haven't begun to fade yet AT ALL! Since mid Feb!
This plant looks pitiful!

[fishmom]

GPeach, you haven't said what you did in June when you first posted this. Did you repot then? What are you using for media? In your pictures, it looks like bark mix with something else mixed in, either moss or deteriorated bark. Either way, it will hold a fair amount of moisture, which may account for the rotting roots.

You say you try not to overwater, but if you are using a chunky bark mix, the pot should dry out in 2-3 days with fresh bark and warm weather. How do you monitor the moisture? A bamboo skewer will let you know what is happening inside the pot.

Getting the outside roots into the pot can seem like a problem, but a good soak in a bucket of water when you repot will make the roots more pliable. then leave it dry for a couple of days after repotting to allow any damaged roots to heal up.

Are the top leaves still in good shape? If so, I wouldn't think you need to cut the spike.

[GPeach]

Thank you, fishmom!
I did not repot it in June. I thought I'd wait and see if the blooms would fall first. Nope. They didn't. However, I emptied it out yesterday and it did have some sphagnum moss in the middle that was saturated with water. I have now removed all of the "dead" roots. I will repot today and hopefully get all of the roots into the medium which I will be using an orchid bark mix with some charcoal and perlite but, no moss!
I check moisture by looking thru the clear plastic planter, with lots of holes for ventilation, to see if the roots are green or if it needs water.
And all of the leaves are very floppy, like it's really thirsty! It's also trying to grow a new leaf.

[ccrow]

I don't pretend to have tons of experience here, but I've had good luck by cutting off the spike on a couple of distressed phals. They do lose a lot of moisture through the flowers, it seems! The cut spike lasts quite awhile in a vase, too;-) Of course you still have to address the basic cause of the distress.