Leaves yellowing from base??
 

Ok this happened almost overnight. This one just got done flowering so I moved it into the other room to be in the east window. It was moved from a dark area of the house. Two days later, THIS! The leaf petioles are turning yellow!

I unpotted it. The roots are healthy, all the way up to the collar of the plant. Not even the roots in the center are showing signs of rot. The collar is alive and firm all the way down to the base. I dont spray or pour water on my phals to water them, I dunk them. So no crown rot.

What should I do? Can the leaves be saved?

Am I worried for nothing? Waiting for opinions before i pot it back up. I dont want to leave it out of the pot forever

I think that leaf is old and time for it to go.

Do old leaves typically yellow from the base outward? There is another leaf next to it with a yellow petiole, as well.

What kind of medium you had this phal planted in? I see some sphag. Check the crow to see if there's anything soft and smelly.

potted in bark. Nothing is soft. I checked up and down the collar and checked the crown as well.

Maybe it is just naturally dying off. Sometimes plants will have a leaf die to enable it to push out new growth, redirect its energy to either another new leaf or root. It is the lower leaf dying , so for me it is okay..I will be more concerned if it is a new leaf in the center that is wilting. Does not really need to be the lowest leaf to first have to go..but it happens.

I hope so. But my understanding is that old leaves die from the tip inwards. This one is dying from the crown out.

You did change the location of your plant, and it will react to that change. Maybe it is accelarating the senescence, combination of factors.

I noticed some other things. In this picture you can see both.

One is, the leaf is already disconnecting from the base of the plant.

The second thing I noticed is that the other leaf petiole has two dark brown spots on it, one on either side of the plant. There is a bump under both. I think it is a root trying to come through. Would that make the petiole turn yellow?

If it's root, then great.

It already has plenty of roots. Just wondering if the root pushing through can cause a leaf to turn yellow from the base.

I guess you just have to observe how it goes. I do try to peel off some of the dried out petiole later when the leaf is gone. And those roots are just sometimes there as if waiting for the timing to come out.

I would wait and see.
So far, I do not see anything dangerous really.
Leaves can yellow from in and out.
As long as it is not a rot, which this is not, don't need to worry.
Sometimes phals may suddenly drop leaves when you mess with them.
You took the plant out of the pot and I'm sure the phal might not be too happy.

As you say and as I can see from the picture, the plant otherwise looks fine, the roots and all.
Just pot it back in its pot and see what it does.
Not common for me, but I did have one large phal that dropped two leaves at the same time.

I find that change of environment and messing with the plant in any way can cause leaves or flowers to suddenly fall off.
I have also noticed that moving phals from moss to something drier like bark also cause leaves to drop.
My idea is that they are trying to balance the water loss by dropping more leaves.
With few exceptions, many of the pahls with 9-10 leaves will "retune" themselves by only maintaining just around 5-6 leaves once they adjust to my indoor growing conditions.

K deficiency may also cause bottom leaves to drop but I don't think yours is the case.

I had a phal do this recently. It was up to 9 leaves, and started pushing out a 10th leaf. Then all of a sudden the bottom 3 leaves started yellowing and dying off rapidly. I lost two of them pretty quickly and the third one is still hanging there, but the process seems to have stopped. I am assuming the phal decided that 10 leaves would just be too many.

That's exactly what it is when phals are moved from nice comfy greenhouse to a dreary indoor environment.

Phal leaves when they die start yellowing at the tip of the leaf. When a leaf starts at the main stem you have a slight bacterial infection starting. Hopefully you can stop the infection before it reaches the crown.

I use peroxide or Physan poured over the stem, some people use alcohol. If the leaves above do not yellow you will have stopped the infection from spreading.

Moving the Phal from your display area to the east window would not cause this problem.

ETA - A root growing through the leaf will also not cause this problem. Phals have survived for years and years pushing their roots through the foliage.

Brooke

I took the phal out of its pot AFTER the leaves began to yellow.

I considered pouring hydrogen peroxide over the area, but if it gets into the space between the leaf and the collar, wouldnt that be likely to cause issues? I have never gotten water there, so i dont see how there could be an infection starting. And hydrogen peroxide does break down into water and oxygen...so the water would just sit in there.

certainly i can see using it if an infection had already started, but where there isnt any, it would be more likely to harm than help. That is why I am trying to find a consensus before I do anything that might further a potential issue, or create one where there may not be one.

You can pour hydrogen peroxide over and dry it out by place the phal upside down. I just soak one of mine over night with insecticide and batteria/infection solution. Then I hang dry afterward. That phal has roots rot and I can see some black stuff around the top leaf. Not to mention when I got this phal, it has bugs. Oh well, hope it survive..its currently in ICU lol.

I don't think it's an infection as long as the yellowing spreads onto other part of the plant.
Looks like a normal leaf dropping to me, but keep an eye on it.

Hydrogen peroxide won't do anything. It will clean out whatever's sitting on the surface of the plant, but let's say this was an infection and hydrogen peroxide won't go inside the tissue and kill the organism responsible for any issues.

The phal ended up dropping three leaves. It seems fine now, though Im a little sad to see it half the size

Peeling back the petioles revealed healthy tissue. No rot.

So, I guess healthy phal leaves can and do yellow from the base outward.

That is good then..maybe the plant just wants to keep a minimum number of leaves as it rests.

It just got done flowering, so I dont think it will rest.