Flowers falling off after repotting

[tasha]

Hi everyone,

I am a new orchid owner/parent and I recently repotted my orchid as one of the flowers were falling off and one of the leaves was turning yellow. Upon inspection of the roots, some of them were rotting so I trimmed the dead, rotting ones off, and accidentally trimmed a few of the yellow ones in the middle, because i thought it was rotten but it was actually firm and a live root. i sprayed the roots with diluted 3% h202. And cut the roots with sterilized scissors.

My question is, i just repotted it 2 days ago and now the flowers are all wilting and dying. the leaves look good, and only 1 leaf was totally yellow and wilted so i cut that one too.

Is it the trauma of the repotting that is causing all the flower s to wilt? They were healthy looking and robust before repotting (except for the one that was wilting and fell off) Or the natural process of them dying. I just bought this phalenopsis around 1 month ago.

[camille1585]

Hi Tasha,
First of all, welcome to Orchidboard!

I don't think there was/is anything wrong with your orchid (a Phalaenopsis). One month is not long for the blooms, but you also have no idea how long they had been open for before you purchased the plant, and sometimes the difference in environment (from greenhouse to store to house) makes the blooms wilt early. And usually once 1 bloom wilts, the rest follow shortly after so I wouldn't blame it on repotting. Blooming phals can usually be repotted without affecting the blooms.

A few dead roots is nothing too unusual or worrying, and the yellow leaf was probably natural aging if it was a bottom leaf. In the future, it's best to let yellowing leaves drop off by themselves, and avoid spraying h2o2 on roots, it can be quite aggressive for them. Imo the only place to use h2o2 is in the crown of the plant to stop crown rot.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

[tasha]

Thank you and thanks for the tips!!!