Rotting leaf?

[Jenna376]

This a pic of one of my phal. Someone please tell me what is going on with this leaf. Is it crown rot? I havent gotten water in the crown. It has a keiki on a spike. The roots seem healthy. There is not any new growth coming from the center though either. The temp is 71-76. The humidity more on the dry side. I had it in a west window for years and moved them all about a week ago to a south wall wich gets a bit of west sun in the evening.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

You probably just answered your own question(s) without knowing it.

You moved the plant, which means a change in conditions only the plant felt, but as a human-being it seems unnoticeable.

Nothing terribly serious about this problem. It was probably a little sunburn.

Just move it back to where it was doing well. The damaged leaf may fall off over some time, but overall, the plant will chug along.

[estación seca]

Sunburn.

Any plant moved from shade to even a small amount of sun is at risk.

Phals grow well with no sun on their leaves, ever. Adapting them to a little sun can be done, but it is risky and unnecessary.

People who only have sunny windows often will put a sheer curtain between the glass and the plant. This goes a long way to preventing sunburn.

Your plant should recover and grow more leaves. Also, the crack at the center crease makes it look a little dehydrated to me. Consider watering a little more frequently.

[Jenna376]

Does sunburn move from the tip to the crown? I only moved it a week ago and this problem started about a month and a half ago. It started out mushy and dries up the more it moves down. I snipped it rite below the still firm part of the leaf. Was that a good idea? Im including a pic of the part I cut off. Maybe it's better to see what I'm trying to say/ask. Or maybe im way over analysing.

[greenpassion]

Not sure about the cause of the leaf problem, but it looks like you have another keiki coming on the spike.
As far as the possible sun damage, I keep one group of my phals in an east window, and initially I noticed that they were getting too much sun. I remedied this by putting up a sheer white curtain, and it works very well.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Jenna376

Does sunburn move from the tip to the crown?

If it truly is sunburn, yes, it can go from the tip of the leaf down the length of the leaf. It doesn't have to show up as burnt patches in the middle of the leaf. Where the sunburnt areas are depends on where the greatest and most damaging light/sun exposure was.

Originally Posted by Jenna376

I only moved it a week ago and this problem started about a month and a half ago.

The way the first post was written it seemed like it was implied that everything was growing fine for a year and then this problem started after you had moved the plant. I probably shouldn't have assumed that this was the case...

Originally Posted by Jenna376

It started out mushy and dries up the more it moves down.

I should've asked for further clarification...this is important new information to know.

Originally Posted by Jenna376

I snipped it rite below the still firm part of the leaf. Was that a good idea?

If your cutters were not sterilized or disinfected prior to making the cut, then it probably wasn't a very good move.

If your cutters were sterilized or disinfected prior to making the cut, it might've been helpful to some degree, but it wouldn't have saved the leaf from eventually falling off. It was a rather small leaf and it was also a newly forming one, so it would not be surprising if the leaf fell off due to damage .

Originally Posted by Jenna376

Im including a pic of the part I cut off. Maybe it's better to see what I'm trying to say/ask. Or maybe im way over analysing.

Now that there's new information, I have to ask, how exactly is this plant being grown? As in, what kinds of cultural practices/techniques are you employing? For example, are you misting the leaves? Are you using tap water to water the plant? Stuff like this. Please be as thorough and as detailed as possible.

What are the environmental parameters for where the plant is being grown? Examples would be temperature or relative humidity.

Please also be specific about what had changed prior to the problem happening.

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[Jenna376]

I'm sorry philip...im so new to this Orchid care.im in upstate New York so they have been in dry heat with a temp of 72-76. I did just put each one on a humidity tray. I was watering with tap water then I read it was best to use distilled water so i used that a couple days ago. My house was under construction for about a month and they were covered with dust. So maybe that could have caused the leaf to rot? I also repotted about a month ago too.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

It seems like there was a lot of things going on.

Dust from construction would not likely have affected it. If there were any changes in temperature, lighting, or watering, it would've definitely done something like this.

I don't think you have to worry about it any further. It seems as if it stopped.

Also watch the roots for rots.

Poor air circulation can also be a problem. Just make sure there is some decent air circulation in the area where they are growing.

[Jenna376]

Thank you Philip. I did repot into clear side slit pots so the air circulation should be good now. And the roots do look good im using the scewer methed to know when to water.
Also, should I be using distilled water? Or plain tap water.
Also should I be adding Epsom salt? I read somewhere that it makes them bloom.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

It is not necessary to add Epsom salt. There is no evidence to support the claim that adding Epsom salt will induce blooms on a Phalaenopsis.

Fertilizing regularly should help ensure the plant gets the necessary major, minor, and trace elements it needs to prevent deficiencies in major, minor, or trace elements.

Phalaenopsis can be induced to bloom off season. One of the triggers is actually a differential in temperatures. If the Phal hasn't already thrown out a flowering inflorescence, this is the trigger. It isn't all these other things that are somehow popping up on the internet. It is verifiable through scientific journals, and you can even try it out with fairly good reliability. Another thing is, I used to work for an orchid nursery, and this was what I was told during training.

Journals:

Average Daily Temperature and Reversed Day/Night Temperature Regulate Vegetative and Reproductive Responses of a Doritis pulcherrima
Lindley Hybrid

http://horttech.ashspublications.org...3/433.full.pdf

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/...jccs.201400122

If you're wondering how I'm able to find these scientific journals, use Google Scholar as your search engine.

You don't have to always take these scientific journals at face value, you can always try it out and see if you can replicate what it is these journals are claiming. You would also have to have a good working knowledge of how to set up controls and variables in a scientific experiment.

The secondary trigger that isn't always reliable is if the Phal hybrid has breeding that includes genetics from Phal species that can bloom from the same spike repeatedly, and the plant has already thrown up a flowering inflorescence, you can cut the flowering inflorescence above the second node.

I don't encourage artificially inducing Phals to bloom repeatedly. It is energetically taxing on them. Flowers are the plant's reproductive organs, and it takes a lot of energy to produce these structures. It could hurt your Phal in the long run. This is something that I do not advise doing over and over again in the long run.

I also may have forgotten to mention this, if you were misting the orchid daily, it was a good thing this practice was stopped. It can also be a source of leaves that looks like the one your Phal in question developed.

By the way, if you're wondering how I'm able to know how Phals grow in the wild without actually having to travel to those locations, there are people who have gone to those locations already, and they've posted numerous photos and videos of Phals growing in the wild on the internet. It is no longer a rarity to find documentation and evidence of how these plants grow naturally. Like I've said in multiple posts throughout the time I've been on the OB, there is no need to take all my words at face value all the time, many of the claims I've made are already documented by either me or someone else and they have been made public. All someone needs to do is either ask and/or do the research themselves and they will find the facts. This is why I try to back up my claims with as much evidence as possible. While I don't always get things 100% correct all the time, I strive to give people the best information they can get, because I know what it was like to grow an orchid without any help from anybody else prior to the advent of the internet. When I was first growing orchids, it was in the late 80's to early 90's before the internet was introduced to the public. Prior to the internet, I had to rely on the sellers telling me how to grow orchids or on outdated books on how to grow orchids that were published back in the 60's or 70's. Back then, I was a pre-teen with immigrant parents who wouldn't have understood the concept of an orchid club.

Side note: If I'm not mistaken, if you take a course in logic, facts trumps truth. My truth can be different from your truth and vice versa, but the facts are independent of both our truths, factual evidence will be there regardless of our interpretations of what actually happens or exists.

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