Phal moist leaf dropping off

[mayipis]

I bought a phal in bloom 2 months ago. It lost a leaf last week and the leaf was brown and dry. I guess that's normal. Yesterday, i saw that one of the leaves is yellowing and it looked like it has a wet base of the leaf. I went to touch it to see if it was indeed wet and the leaf dropped off. The leaf wasnt completely yellow yet and it wasnt dehydrated. Now another leaf is yellowing and i dont know if it will also eventuslly fall off. The part of the stem that the leaf broke off from is still wet. For now, i put cinnamon on it to dry it out. What is causing this?

[rbarata]

How do you water it?
Soak it? Pour water from above? Do you wet the medium and roots only or the leaves too?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Probably too much water.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board.

If you have high humidity, maybe over 70%, orchids become more susceptible to bacterial and fungal diseases. Your plant still may be infected.

Consider putting a few drops of 3% hydrogen peroxide into the center of the plant. Let it sit for a few minutes, and pour it out. In a hot, humid climate, try to keep water out of the crown. Phals in habitat grow sideways, with the crown horizontal. Water does not sit in the crown.

There is a bacterial disease called Erwinia that causes wet rot of Phals in high humidity and temperatures. It also smells badly. Your plant might have this. Go to the Web site of the St. Augustine Orchid Society and read the section on plant diseases.

[Dollythehun]

Oddly, I just threw out a Phal and a Den Phal from this same malady. Mine was caused by hapzard watering. But, probably from different diseases. The Den Phal was soft and smelly, the new cane coming up, pitted. Out! The Phal lost leaf by leaf. I was too uncaring to save it. Out. Temperature can also be a factor; too cold and wet equals rot.

[mayipis]

Thank you for all your feedback. I checked on Erwinia and the photos look like it. However, the room where i keep my plants in is normally dry with not much humidity. It also has bright light coming in as my blinds are opaque but light still gets in. Now i can see some yellowing of the leaves and i dont know if it means the other leaves are also infected.

As for my watering habits, i soak it but i make sure i only soak it up to the roots and not the stem and i drain it properly before putting it back in its place

[rbarata]

As for my watering habits, i soak it but i make sure i only soak it up to the roots and not the stem and i drain it properly before putting it back in its place

That's one of the correct procedures to water Phals.
And how are your temps? Especially the min...

[mayipis]

My room's at around 29°C during the day and 24°C at night. Is that too hot?

[rbarata]

No, that's not too hot. That's perfect!
From the info you've provide us, in general the cultural aspects seem to ok.
Follow Estación seca's advise and see how it goes.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I still think he might be overwatering.

He's using expanded clay pellets like LECA or Hydroton. The evidence for this is in pic 3 that he posted. It is not necessary to soak the plant when those kinds of products retain a lot of water already.

It was also not mentioned for how long this soak was. If it was being dipped in a bucket of water, that is ok. If it was soaked for 30 minutes up to an hour or more, there's the problem.

As far as I know, he lives in the Philippines. It is warm and humid there. The fact that it is already humid there negates the need to soak a Phal. Since there is no numerical value for the humidity in his growing area, it is difficult to say that it is as dry as it would be in places such as Southern California, for example, it might be just slightly drier than it is outside his house, but it could still be somewhat high, I don't know.