Second case of mystery rot in Phalaenopsis. What am I doing wrong??

[Wade Coleman]

Hey everybody! So I have been growing orchids for about a year now and I own probably more than I should... hehe I’ve got phals, psychosis, dendrobium, epidendrum, oncidium, cattleya, and pahps, I’ve yet to lose any except for one Phalaenopsis that died of, what I think, was stem rot. I live in Hawaii and I don’t have A.C., so the windows are always open and there is always a nice breeze blowing through the room where my orchids are. Even if water were to accumulate in the leaves, I would think it would just evaporate so quickly it wouldn’t even be a problem. I noticed, however, that one of my phals has another dark patch in the middle of the stem just like my previous phal did before it lost all its leaves and died. When I water, I don’t pour on top of the plant, I pour it close to the roots so that water doesn’t accumulate in the crown or leaves or anything. I water the phals once or twice a week. The plant is growing a new leaf and the crown looks perfectly healthy. Already I see the leaves beginning to yellow and I don’t know what to do! I have quite a few other phals who are growing quite well right now, but this is the second case of this mystery rot and I don’t know how to prevent it or what’s causing it.

[Ray]

My first guess would be a bacterial infection that grew where water was trapped in that tight, little space.
If you gently pry that tissue back, avoiding tearing it, you can use a Q-tip to transfer a little cinnamon powder in there to (hopefully) halt the progression.

[Wade Coleman]

I’ll be sure to try that. Thank you so much for the advice. So basically all I can do to try and prevent this from happening again is to try my best to keep water out of the leaf folds?

[Ray]

Pretty much, although if an insect chewed on the plant, that can start an infection as well.

[Leafmite]

It does help to keep water off of the leaves when a plant seems to be vulnerable to infection. Sometimes adding a little extra Calcium to your plant's diet can help strengthen the cells and prevent issues. Good luck!