Wilting leaves on my Monster Phal

[susiep]

Gin, that would be easier! Do you have any ideas about this wilting condition?

[tuvoc]

My thought is a humidity issue. That time outside may have dried it out more than it liked. Your bathroom sounds ideal right now. Keep it warm and moist, not wet, as Ross said. It may take a while, so be patient. I've had phals do the same thing after repotting, but they came through fine. Good luck.

Kim

[susiep]

Ok, I'm done. I took out the coco liner and put in metal screen. I trimmed a few dead roots and a couple of the bottom leaves (I couldn't bring myself to cut off the flowers ). I soaked some phal mix (bark) in water and put the whole thing back in the basket, but a little deeper this time. I got more of the roots covered by bark now. The roots should get more air and water now. The screen doesn't look as nice but if it helps it will be worth it. Thanks for all the advice!

[Brent]

Im a newbe here . This is the exact topic that I enquired about. Thanks to you all for the discussion. i repotted my Phal .It arrived from the store with a mossy type medium holding it in place. When I removed it from the pot the moss was solid, and still damp from last weeks watering.
Most of the roots were brown and mushy/stringy
so I removed as many as I could. This left me with a very few nice white/ light green roots.
I then planted it in some fir bark mix and used some bigger chunks to allow more air.
What is this kln that Ross is mentioning?
Is it something that helps the plant start roots?
How long should I expect to wait before i see signs of the wilted leaves changing?/ weeks? months??
Thanks again for all-of your help..I will be back.
Brent

[susiep]

Hello Brent, I remember your post. I am just experimenting with this myself. I have been growing orchids for over 30 years and still see things I don't know what to do with. My plant is unusual because it is so big and very old. Your situation is similar but I expect you will see results quicker than I will. You did everything right and now you just wait. The KLN could help grow new roots but if the plant is healthy enough you will probably see them eventually anyway. In my case, I had just repotted this monster about a month ago because it was way overgrown in some very old moss. When I took it out of the pot today to look at the roots, they were great and had about 0.5" of new growth on the ends of the roots! So about a half inch per month... slow growing, huh? You probably won't see new leaves until you get good roots going. I have noticed it takes about a growing cycle for recovery (about a year usually) but it all depends on the roots. Good luck!

[susiep]

Oh my gosh! The crazy plant is looking better already! Maybe I am being too optomistic, but I think we solved the problem. The roots needed air. Who would have thought it would wilt for need of air? The leaves are more rigid and only a few floppy ones left. Flowers still look the same (they never suffered anyway). I'll take more pics in a few days if it continues to improve. Thanks for the input everyone!

[Brent]

SusieP how long did it take before your leaves started to firm up?? I checked my roots 10 days ago and nothing yet. does it take weeks ? months??
Thanks for your help.

[susiep]

Brent, my situation was a little different. Mine had a lot of good roots to start and when I unpotted it after about a month they had about 1/2 inch of new growth. My wilting must have been due to not enough air to the roots. When I repotted it last week I used phal mix bark and used metal window screen to line a big wire basket. Now it is happy! The wilting started to improve almost immediately (within 1-2 days). The cocoliner that came with the wire basket was not allowing enough air to circulate. It's so weird. It was wilting like it wasn't getting water, but it was actually wilting because it wasn't getting air. This was never an issue on a smaller pot or basket, but because this one was very big (almost 2 gallons of bark to fill it) air couldn't get to the roots in the middle. It looks even better today so I think I have finally made it happy!

[caseydoll]

I'm so happy that your phal has been doing better! It really is a absolutely gorgeous orchid. I hope that one day one of mine will get that big. It's so cool! (except when you have to repot it I bet!)

[susiep]

Sarah, you are so right! I hope it will be good for a couple years now. Thanks for the compliments. I have gotten very attached to this plant. I am glad I was able to rescue it.