Premature wilting! Advice?

[Lys621]

Hello, I'm new to Orchid Board. I have this very pretty phal, my first orchid, which I nursed back to health after someone sat on it (!!!) a few months ago.

It has been doing really great, and has 9 flowers now. However, the back 2 flowers on one of the stems have begun to wilt. I don't over water it, as it is in a glass pot and doesn't have proper drainage. It started to grow new stems in this pot unexpectedly so that's why I didn't transplant it into a more suitable pot yet.

It has been in flower for about 2 weeks, so I thought it would be premature for the flowers to start wilting. What does everyone think?

It has thrived in my sunny south/southeast facing window, but perhaps too much sun? Maybe the back flowers are getting shielded by the other flowers? I included pictures, lemme know.

Thanks everyone!

[mehitabel]

In my experience, premature wilting has always come from dehydration, either because of underwatering or because the roots are compromised. (Sometimes from a broken spike)

If it were mine, I would repot right away. In fact, I would have repotted it when I first got it. I cant tell what the medium is, but it looks like the top half is sphag. Sphag goes "sour" with collected salts very suddenly and that damages the roots. I would never leave a new phal in old sphag-- high probability of root damage.

You should at least *check* the roots, see what's going on.

BTW, what is that sphag wrapped around the spike for? Is it possible the spike has been bent or broken under the sphag? That would also produce premature wilting.

[Lys621]

The sphag on the spike is just decorative, I rescued this phal from a hotel. I took it off, and the spike is very healthy all the way up.

Either way, I just repotted with new sphag. The roots looked pretty rank. I'm surprised it was flowering so fast. It has been at least opening a new one every other day. The sphag that I pulled out of the middle of the pot was foul; soggy, brown and mushy.

So now I'm worried! This was my first orchid and I've been treating it like a baby. Should I expect it to lose all its remaining flowers now that I repotted? Any preventative measures?

Thanks so much for your help.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

1. Repot with large grade orchid bark right away.

2. Repot into a pot with drainage holes.

3. Check for brown or black roots, these should be removed because they're dead. Healthy roots are white with green tips.

4. The flowers wilted because it was probably time to wilt.

5. Sunburn will not always manifest right away.

6. They should be grown in bright shade.

7. They grow intermediate to warm (60 F to 90 F). So don't keep them around any heaters or AC vents.

8. There are clear plastic pots available.

If you find any other problems do ask. There are plenty of people here who can give you advice.

[camille1585]

If the plant and roots are fine, it could be that it got too much sun which aged the blooms prematurely, or this phal is not a long bloomer. I have a few phals that bloom 6+ months, but on another one, the blooms never last more than 3-4 weeks before slowly falling off one by one. I put that down to genetics.

[Gwenchanter]

I have repotted plants which were in full bloom and did not lose any flowers. If you did a good job and didn't disturb the roots too much you may not loose the flowers either.

One time I did have to divide two plants which had their roots all intertwined and the plants were in flower at that time. It was hard to get them separated I had to cut some of the good roots. All of the flowers except one did end up falling off.

In your case though, I really think you did the right thing. Rot sets in very fast and suddenly your plant is rootless. You were a bit lucky that your flowers were showing signs of what was going on under the spag so you could take action! When plants are not in flower it takes a bit longer for the leaves to start showing signs of root loss (they become limp).

[RosieC]

Cut off all the squishy roots and see what is left. If you have root rot, then you may well loose the flowers anyway so the best thing is to repot or you are likely to loose the whole plant.

How many good roots to you have once the bad ones are cut away?

If there are some, then pot it back up in a small a pot as you can. If there are none then you need something like Sphag-n-bag to try and rescue it. I don't have the link for that just now, but it's talked about a lot here so try searching.

[Lys621]

Thanks everyone for your input. I think there were about 3 good roots and about 3 iffy ones. I left the iffy ones in, if only to maybe prolong the flowers life. Got rid of a few rotted ones, which were actually far along in the rotting process--they were kinda dry and came right off.

I'm also going to move it into a slightly shadier window, because I have a feeling it was being over exposed to sun.

This one's pretty tough...it has tolerated my lack of orchid care knowledge and been through quite some experimentation. Hopefully it can bounce back and keep its flowers.

Thanks again everyone!