Phal leaf with brown stripes and turn yellow

[moria0672]

I have this Phalaenopsis pulchra that has some brown stripes on the leaves and is starting to turn yellow.

Someone can help me?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

1. How bright are you growing this orchid? It looks like sunburn.

2. The pot's too big. This will indirectly contribute to root rot. Too much moisture for the roots to handle. Not enough air.

Phals grow on trees.

Please find in-situ pics of Phals and see how they really grow in the wild.

3. Use medium to large grade bark instead, or CHC.

Sphagnum can also indirectly contribute to root rot if the environment doesn't suit growing in full on moss, (most home growers don't have a growing environment suited to growing Phals in full on moss).

[james mickelso]

If you look at the roots, they are already starting to deteriorate if they haven't already rotted. This looks like root rot and guignardia. The plant is on the way out. Shoot it quick so it doesn't suffer any more. All kidding aside, this plant is dieing. It was in poor health and now the roots are rotting. Sorry.

[moria0672]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

If you look at the roots, they are already starting to deteriorate if they haven't already rotted. This looks like root rot and guignardia. The plant is on the way out. Shoot it quick so it doesn't suffer any more. All kidding aside, this plant is dieing. It was in poor health and now the roots are rotting. Sorry.

Luckily you are wrong, the orchid is growing new healty roots and a new leaf that, unfortunately, already has some brownish stripes.
I have repotted the plant a couple of days ago, because the previous "medium" didn't seems appropriate (bark + expanded clay).
Now is in full sphagnum moss more "vaporous" and needs to be slightly humid to maintain its dampness.
The orchis is in a shady area with good air movement, so we can exclude damages by sunburn...
Some other suggestion?

[Silje]

If this is not sunburn, then I'm with James here...

At least make sure this plant is nowhere near any other orchids and handle it by taking precautions to not spread whatever it's infected with.

I think you're better off buying a new, healthy plant and starting from scratch.

[james mickelso]

Orchids are very slow growers and very tenacious too. They want to live and so will use the very last of their energy to grow new leaf and roots. And orchids do recover. That's basically what I do is rescue orchids that are on their last legs. This has a disease and is suffering. If it were in my "collection" () I would try to get it healthy. But if you have other more valuable orchids, at least move this away from the others. Spagnum moss is ok to grow orchids in but it must be loose and you must have good air movement or you risk creating the perfect environment for more disease. Please let us know how it comes out.

[SJF]

It appears that in your picture there is a leaf of another orchid with a similar issue. It looks bacterial or fungal. I agree with Jim. I also think it needs to be systemically treated for what ails it.
spag. is not "vaporous". It has proper applications, but I would not say air circulation is one of them. Good luck in saving it

[SHag42]

Hey Moria,

Sorry to hear about your phal. It is sad when a plant goes down hill. I am a newbe so I don't know how valid my info is but I did have a plant that had similar problems. It was the reason that I joined this board. the leaves looked like the one on the left side of your picture. I repotted it because the media had broken down. It had some root rot but I only had to cut off about a third of the roots. The rest were very healthy. did not seem to help the plant continued to go down hill. After looking on here I treated it with a systematic fungicide as a soil drench. 3 weeks later it still did not look good and more leaves were turning yellow and brown. I was beside myself and did not know what to do. After some research I decided to try giving it Epsom salts at the rate of 1 teaspoon per gallon. With in a 2 weeks I was able to see a improvement. The leaves started to turn back green and no more were turning yellow. Of course the damaged leaves that had brown on them did not improve so I cut those back. The plant is now in bloom and looks great. I don't know for sure what helped the most but for me the extra mag. seemed to do the best. And it may have just been a combo of all. It could be worth a shot. I would for sure treat it with a systematic fungicide because it does look fungal and let it get somewhat on the dry side before watering. Good luck with your plant and I hope it gets better for you.

[moria0672]

Thanks to all for the hints. As first thing I have separate the plant from the others and sprayed with Alliette (fosetil aluminium)
In 15 Days I will spray again with "poltiglia bordolese" (pentahydrate cupric sulphate+calcium hydroxide) and will see what happens.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by moria0672

Luckily you are wrong, the orchid is growing new healty roots and a new leaf that, unfortunately, already has some brownish stripes.
I have repotted the plant a couple of days ago, because the previous "medium" didn't seems appropriate (bark + expanded clay).
Now is in full sphagnum moss more "vaporous" and needs to be slightly humid to maintain its dampness.
The orchis is in a shady area with good air movement, so we can exclude damages by sunburn...
Some other suggestion?

How long has the Phal been in that shady location? Was it just recently placed in that shady location?

You are very wrong about the expanded clay not providing enough moisture. Expanded clay hold tons of moisture, it's just very difficult to judge visually at first glance.

Don't believe me?

Test it out.

Grab a container, fill it with water 1/2 way up the container. Add expanded clay to the water's midline. Remove the expanded clay without dumping the water, then measure how much water is left behind.

If it isn't sunburn, then that "constant humidity" may be the culprit, and it may be a fungal or bacterial infection.

I'm leaning towards it being a fungal problem.

Yes, as was already mentioned, Sphag doesn't provide the best air circulation to the orchid's roots. It does need to be loose.