severely burnt phal.

[hanzy08]

My friend took it out in her porch to get some sun and forgot about it till 2 days later. It was in direct summer afternoon sun for two days. She gave it to me to try and save it. the roots are ok but I'm planning to repot to clean the roots and soak it in superthrive. The leaves look really bad and the question is do i cut it? all the leaves are burnt though so if i do, that means leaving no leaves at all....
[IMG][IMG][/IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]

[desertanimal]

Well, the burned parts of those leaves definitely aren't helping anyway, right?

[hanzy08]

Originally Posted by desertanimal

Well, the burned parts of those leaves definitely aren't helping anyway, right?

true. i haven't seen a leafless phal either lol. maybe once it puts put new leaves then i'll cut them?

[syspila]

I would not stress it more and return it to your normal culture and let it produce new leaves, and the old ones will drop. It may take a year or more but the plant should suvive as long as the growing tip is not damaged..

[hanzy08]

Originally Posted by syspila

I would not stress it more and return it to your normal culture and let it produce new leaves, and the old ones will drop. It may take a year or more but the plant should suvive as long as the growing tip is not damaged..

thanks for your input. I guess i will just leave it then.

[syspila]

I doubt if it will send up a new flower bud this year, though after a new leaf or two it may...Phal hybrids are resilient.

[hanzy08]

Originally Posted by syspila

I doubt if it will send up a new flower bud this year, though after a new leaf or two it may...Phal hybrids are resilient.

yes.. being that flowering season is not far from now I guess it will not flower this season. I wonder if it will grow leaves though in the winter??

[Ben Belton]

Unfortunately I have done this several times. If the roots are fine and the plant was otherwise healthy, it will be OK. Don't repot it and treat it with TLC. They bounce back with new leaves fairly quickly and at some point the old ones will be kicked off.

Good luck

[Island Girl]

^+1 yes, I agree with Ben.

[Silje]

I also agree with Ben. Looks like we've all toasted a phal once or twice in our orchid career.



You think you're doing a good deed and then whopsi, the poor plant is 'well done'.

I've come to a point where I'm no longer very stressed regarding sunburn on phals, but I'll give it to your friend: This is one of the worst ones that I've seen so far.

It looks unappealing and it makes the plant look shabby for years, but as long as the growth point is intact and the roots are there, they do recover from it.

Regarding cutting or leaving... I think I'd leave the leaves on at the moment and keep and eye on them. Maybe they're all too far gone, but I've had several phals with sunburn and although there are cases when the whole leaf dies off, there are also times when the affected area just dries up and leaves the rest intact. You can of course do a test and try to cut of the affected area on one or two leaves, put on cinnamon on the cut edges and see if you can rescue the remaining of the leaf that way. I'm thinking a little bit of leaf is better than nothing, but I could be wrong...