Help! My phals leaves have a brown ring around its edges

[joxci4]

I have two Phalaenopsis that need some help.

Phal #1: She's a bit older, and has begun a slow and steady decline since I repotted. After its flowers died I repotted in a larger ceramic pot since she was overgrowing the plastic one, put special orchid mix in there, but the pot has no drainage hole :/ This may be its issue. So since it's re-potting the stem has completely died, and there is a slowly growing brown ring around the edge of the underside of all of its leaves. Is this maybe from hard water or nutrient issues?

Pahl #2: Recently bought and named. Came in a ceramic pot, with a drainage hole. This one too has a brown ring on the underside of all of its leaves, which has tinted the complete underside of one of its leaves. Looks like the others are following suit. Also, I noticed one of its older leaves was yellow and kind of mushy. Perhaps a sign of over watering?

For both I use tap water filtered through a Brita charcoal filter, and only water about a cup each, usually once a week. Maybe a bit less for the second one since it's smaller. Once a month I use about a tablespoon of Orchid fertilizer diluted in a bit over a cup of water and split this between 5 of my plants. They both get lots of indirect sunlight, and the room stays about 65 degrees warmer sometimes when I use a space heater.

Please help me avoid the inevitable decline in health of all orchids I've ever owned!! PS. I've even killed bamboo before :/

[RosieC]

Are you able to take any picutres. It can always be difficult to imagine what you are describing in words but a picture can show us what you mean.

Phal #1. You definately need a drainage hole. It is far too easy to overwater without, because it could have standing water in the bottom (which most orchids hate for any length of time) even when it looks dry on the top.

When you say it was overgrowing the pot, were there too many roots or was it the plant that was too big. Phals like to be potted so the roots are tight, even if you have arial roots there still might be plenty of room in the pot. If you go to a pot size which is too large for the roots then you may get problems.

What was the orchid mix like? In many stores things are sold as orchid mix which are only suitible for certain types of orchids. Phals don't like a compact soil like medium. Often the mixes sold are bark, but mixed with a lot of broken down soil like medium, this can be bad for Phals (you need something which is just pieces of bark without too much broken down stuff) and mixed with a pot without holes could be even worse.

When you say that the stem has completely died, do you mean the flower stem/spike? If so then that is quite normal and nothing to be worried about.

I can't imagine what you mean about a brown ring. Really need a picture of that to see if it is anything to worry about or not.

Phal #2. Again I would need to see pictures of the ring. A lower leaf turning yellow is not usually a problem (just an old leaf) but when you say it is mushy that worries me and implies some sort of rot. Again pictures would help, but I would be inclined to take a look at the roots as well if you have potential rot on the leaves. Remove the yellow/mushy leaf, is there any soft mushy matter on the central stem of the plant.

[RosieC]

Ok, watering and fertilising.

If you had a drainage holes in the pot I would advise watering with more than a cup of water. I would either run water through the pot then let it drain well, or would stand it in water for a couple of minutes then let it drain well.

Because you mention having no drainage hole in one of them though, you are probably doing the right thing to just water with a little bit.

Generally you should not water on a set time scale, but judge when they need doing. If you have clear plastic pots (which is what i favour) then you can see the roots, and when they are green they don't need watering. When they turn silvery they need watering. With ceramic pots you can only see the top roots and can't judge just from those. What many people do is use a wooden skewer pushed deep in to the medium. If it is wet/damp when you pull it out then you know it's not time to water yet. Another way is to learn to judge by weight, when the pot feels lighter it is time to water.

General modern advise is to fertelise weakly weekly rather than once a month. There are some posts here on OB about how to measure the correct concentration of fertiliser but I go by what is on the bottle (they like a nice balanced ferteliser, which is the three numbers generally on the bottle being arround the same). If the bottle says use monthly then I would use it at quarter strength weekly. If the bottle says use every two weeks then I would use at half strength weekly.

It is recomended when using weekly fertiliser to use plain water once every four weeks to flush through any build up of the chemicals. This is easiest done again with a hole in the pot, and I would always run plenty of water through then let it drain.

[johnblagg]

Once a month I use about a tablespoon of Orchid fertilizer diluted in a bit over a cup of water and split this between 5 of my plants



this is far too much fertilizer it should be more like a teaspoon in one galon of water

[RosieC]

It sounded too strong to me as well, but I forgot to mention that. I think John is right, what does it say on the bottle for how much to use?

[joxci4]

Sorry for the delayed response...

I will keep in mind to dilute the fertilizer much much more. The problem is that my roommate gave it to me with no instructions, so I was just eyeballing it. Alls I know is that it's yellow and grainy.

As for getting pictures of the brownness on the underside of the leaves, I seem to have lost the cable that cnncts my camara to my PC. Whoops :/

RosieC - for Phal#1 - I had to repot it because it was just in a cheapy plastic cup-like thing from the store, which i apparently should have kept it in. But it was too top heavy to was falling over. Although I have noticed they do better in smaller pots. Maybe I could get a smaller pot with drainage hole(s) and put that in the decorative pot? Would that work? Or maye there would still be too much trapped moisture, hrmm.

Not sure what the soil medium is, it has some bark, but looked mostly like the other miracle grow I use on my porch. I'll buy some more chunky stuff, adn try the wooden skewer that's a really brilliant idea! Thanks for the advice

for phal #2- how would I be able to tell if the roots are rotting? They'd be mushy too? And isn't this harmful to the plant if I am taking it out of the plant and screwing around with it while it's in bloom? Aren't they already delicate in this phase?

[RosieC]

You don't want to take them out to look at the roots all the time, on the other had it's not really a problem to do ocasonally especially if you are worried about the roots.

I use inner plastic pots inside a decorative pot and it does add weight to stop it toppling. The other thing I've done is put stones in the bottom of a small pot. I have a Masda which wants a really small pot and kept falling over, but with stones in the botton it does not have a problem.

[RosieC]

Oh forgot. Yes roots would be mushy if they are rotting.