orchid has a limp shrivelling leaf what to do? pic inside.
 

hello everyone!
i purchased this orchid at a grocery store.... i do not know what kind of orchid it is. I've had it for about a year.
It seemed to be doing very well, getting lots of new leaves and the stems sprouting new leaves too... then i noticed one of the bottom leaves started wilting, getting shriveled and limp. So i re potted but the leaf seems to be the same or getting worse also another bottom leaf seems to be doing the same thing.
I don't know whats going on?

Any help, ideas, suggestions please?

This might be due to natural age progression. You have a Phalaenopsis and sometimes they loose a leaf or two. You also have a keiki (baby plant) growing on one flower stem and possibly another starting from the other stem. I can't tell for sure from the photo about the second one. It got cut off in the pic. Keiki formation could be sapping some of the energy from the mother plant and causing leaf loss.

yes you are correct i do have in fact 2 keiki's (baby plants) growing from the stems... i'm happy that it might just be aging and not disease of some sort.

thank you for your response and thanks for the proper terminology of the baby plants.
you guys must get tired of all these questions...but with that said i have a few more!

So, now what is the proper procedure for these aging leaves? Do I cut them off? or just let them wilt away naturally?
I just have no idea duh!

Let the leaves yellow and fall off naturally. If you cut or tug the leaves off you risk infection of the plant. In my short experience, when a phal loses a leaf, it'll yellow seemingly over night and will fall away with a gentle push.

Let me jump in here if I may. What did you use for potting media when you re-potted?

Al

What were the roots like when you repotted (how many and were they firm)? Also like Al asked, what was it repotted in?

You haven't said if you had to removed any rotten roots when you repotted, but if you did then it is possible the plant just can't support all the leaves it has on the smaller number of roots.

One of mine which lost a lot of roots to root rot carried on loosing leaves for a while. Then it seemed to reach a point where the number of roots was sufficient to support the number of leaves and it stopped loosing them. Since then it has grown new roots and is also growing a new leaf just now.

i didn't notice any rotting roots when i re potted it although i didn't really know to look for any.
there is one nice big new root growing out....

i re potted in the wood chips.

That pot is gigantic. Are there really that many roots on the plant? If not, down pot.

I don't believe this is natural. I believe it's a result of massive root loss.

Can you pull the plant out and show us a pic of the roots?

I hadn't noticed the pot originally. King is right it is massive.

A plant with enough roots for that pot would likely by easily able to support those leaves and not need to loose old ones.

I would guess that the large amount of bark in that pot is not drying out quickly enough which could be leading to root rot.

I would advise taking another look at the roots and show us a shot of them if you can.

wow this is probably really bad... i don't know what I'm looking for but I have a feeling this plant is in bad shape.
I've repotted it into a much smaller pot.

here are some pictures of the roots i think they are all dead.
what should i do? cut them off or just leave them?
thanks for all the help guys.

Thoose do look very very dried out and probably dead.

In the first pic a couple of very short bits look like they could still have some life in them maybe, even though they are brown.

If you gently squeeze them and they feel like a hollow papery skin over a hard thread then they are dead and I can't see that leaving them will help.

If they feel hard/solid I would leave them in the hope that there is still some life there.

It does not look like you will have many roots left though. When I've had Phals with only a few roots I have tried spraying the arial root(s) every few days to try and help the plant get seme moisture through that while new roots grow.

Another couple of thoughts...

Are there holes in the new pot? It will be difficult to rescue it if there are no holes in the pot.

My inclination (although I could easily be wrong) is that it looks like those roots have died from being too dry rather than rotting from being too wet. How do you water it and how often?

Yes the new pot does have holes.
I will spray the new areal roots.

i water every 2 weeks. perhaps that is too long?

Way too long between waterings, Myst. You've got the plant in bark, correct? Plants in bark, probably need more frequent watering than any other medium used. Warmer months call for more frequent watering and not knowing the other conditions the plant is in, I would assume, that the plant needs watering at least once a week.

If I can recommend to you something a little unorthodox when it comes to Phal. care but I've noticed that when repotting a stressed Phal. with root damage, due to either too much or too little water...DON'T cut the roots away when doing a re-pot. I've noticed that they rebound much quicker when I leave everything alone....much different than doing a yearly cleanup after blooming for instance. This plant is stressed (though, not that bad yet for what the roots show). You've already potted it in a smaller container...that's a big plus. If you've got some SuperThrive or other rooting hormone, you can soak the entire plant (pot and all) overnight to encourage new root growth. If not, just begin a more frequent regimen of watering/feeding. Don't let it go beyond a week between watering. I have seen leaves fill out after they've begun to show stress but more likely, they'll stay the way they are now...not that terrible. You still have plenty of time to get it back in good shape!

Good luck!

aww thanks sandy, rosie and everyone... i'm soaking her right now.
thanks again.

If I can make a suggestion...

When potting, try not to bury part of the stem into the pot. It can cause more problems.

I recommend wetting the roots thoroughly and bending them away from the plant so that the only part of the Phal that's inside the pot and potting medium are the roots.

Maybe this will help you understand your plant better...

http://www.ibanorum.netfirms.com/Lundu-orchid190207.jpg

http://www.ibanorum.netfirms.com/Lun...hidB190207.jpg

http://www.ibanorum.netfirms.com/Lun...hidD190207.jpg

I just had a thought.

I've heard of many people on the OB having success with clear plastic pots and it just popped into my head as to why I think that is.

Phalaenopsis roots have the ability to photosynthesize.

hey just see if the roots are dead by trying to by gently trying to remove the root covering(the velamen) if it removes very easily then the root is dead cut the spikes with the keikis! and soak it in superthrive and kln and pot into the smallest pot which can support the weight of the plant the smallest pot means like 5" diameter pot then DONOT WATER just mist it and of course...i forgot also apply a fungicide to the roots and where you've cut them then repot it into a small pot.then only water once a week when roots start to form.and dont worry it will utilize food in 1 or 2 of its leaves to make new roots and some more leaves WILL fall off.
shahrez
P.S:dont mind the confusing posts i just cant help it;/

ok yes i am really confused now. So i actually have to cut the stems with the spikes with the keikis off? :(
oh no!
i guess i should add that there are at least 3 living thriving airal roots that i can see.

If you cut kheikis without roots, the baby orchid will not survive. You must leave it on the mother plant until they produce long enough roots to sustain itself.

If the plant is producing kheikis on a flowering stem, over time the stem will dry up and the kheiki can be removed. Sometimes you don't need to cut anything just let nature take it's course.

Of course, you're more than able to cut the kheiki away from the stem once the roots have grown to a good length if the flowering stem supporting it doesn't dry up.

i didn't understand that at all king.
so keikis on a flowering stem is a bad thing and should be removed?
sorry for all the questions.
at this point i'm just feeling like i should leave it to do what it needs to do on its own. But this cutting of the keikis thing has me really confused

Kheikis on a flowering stem is good. It means whatever is happening with the mother plant (good or bad), you have an opportunity to raise another plant of the same kind.

Basal kheikis are also good. It also means whatever is happening with the mother plant (good or bad), you will have an opportunity to raise another plant of the same kind.

Cutting of the kheikis is so that you can isolate them into individual culture (as in you can pot them up or mount them as individual plants).

Basically the name of the game is to have more. The more the better. The more the merrier. You know, that whole thing. In this context it's the right way and good way to be greedy (God won't hurl lightning at you and scold you in a thunderous voice for being greedy and wanting more of the same kind of orchid to be in existence).

More plants of the same kind means if one dies you're not going to cry about it because you have tons of others of the same kind. This is how mother nature intended it to be. It's a numbers game like everything else in life.

oh i feel like a big pain in the butt
but...
how in the world do i do this?

Just to keep things simple, I going to backtrack. So forget all the other stuff I said before about kheikis for now.

Follow this instead.

Don't cut any flower spikes or any kheikis off.

Leave them alone and maybe you'll be able to wiggle the kheikis off one day.

No offense, but apparently you don't appear to be ready to cut kheikis away from the mother plant yet.

In the meantime, keep reading about Phals.

i'm not offended at all. I know I am certainly not ready to do any cutting of kheikis.

will be going to library tomorrow to see what books they have available.
thanks again
jennifer

If I may make a recommendation. Stephen A. Frowine wrote a pretty comprehensive book about Phals, you should check it out.