Crown Rot help
 

I am new to Orchids and want to see how to save this one.
I think it is crow rot even though I dont water from the top, mist is lightly daily ( gonna stop that) and all the leaves but this one have fallen off. I added cinnamon to it and have dosed it with peroxide. any other suggestions?

I water it weekly with 3 ice cubes .... It just flowered 2 weeks ago for the second time but the stem got broken off when my bird flew into the plant so I cut the stem back today with hopes of putting all the energy back into the base of the plant.

It might have poor roots but did not know if I should work on both ends at the same time

thanks

It wasn't your fault; you followed bad instructions, and there was no way for you to know that.

Phalaenopsis are warm-growing orchids that do best if their roots become almost completely dry between waterings. The ice cube thing is unfortunately a marketing gimmick that leads to the death of almost every plant so treated. Phals in moss dry out slowly, and watering weekly keeps them far too wet. Their roots, adapted to grow on tree trunks, and not in a sphagnum bog, rot, and the plant dies.

With a great amount of trouble on your part, there is an outside chance (maybe 10%?) your plant could survive and bloom in 3-4 years. I would throw it out, read about Phals, and buy another one. You will almost certainly need to repot anything you buy right away.

Or, get a different kind of orchid. Oncidium hybrids do a little better than Phals with overwatering.

There is a thread in the Beginner's forum called The Phal Abuse Ends Here. You will know what to do next time if you read that.

Good luck! You can grow orchids, and we look forward to photos of your future flowers.

If you are going to throw your plant out.

It could be a great time to experiment and try some raw, small sprinkle, of salt on the fungus and see what happens. Especially on crown rot.

It must be said that salt build up in the root system from in particular fertilizers is really bad news for orchids.

But in saying that I do believe that salt on fungus is just not used at all.

To get a human safe fungicide fits into the very hard basket as there are not many options that I know of.

Unless it is a very, very special orchid, bin it.

Next time remember the advice above. Phals have to have a very open substrate around their roots, - I use 2" bark chunks and nothing else.

I really don't think that wetting the crown matters, what is more important is that the water should be at the same temp as the orchid, and water in the mornings only.

You can try to save it if you want as it can be very rewarding, however go get a good new healthy one while you wait to see if this one will make it. Then you can look at some pretty flowers till this one does something.

Always take advice that involves buying more orchids.

I agree with everyone else. It looks pretty grim for your phal from the pictures. I would never use ice to water any plant, let alone orchids.

If you do end up tossing the orchid, don't feel too bad. Take what you've learned with this orchid and apply it to your future plants, and this will have amounted to a valuable learning experience. All of us have killed orchids, it's part of how you learn to care for them properly. That's why you don't start your collection with anything rare or expensive. ;)

thanks for the advise, I have killed several which is why I am here. I am determined to keep one alive. I attached 2 photos of another one which looks better and I repotted it a few months back.......got it out of all that moss....it to has a new spike with future blossoms but I hate to see same thing happen to it....

I keep reading what everyone posts so hopefully I will get it right. Are the phals harder to grow? or keep alive I should say?

again thanks

Persistence is an important virtue for the orchid grower, so I admire your wanting to get it right.

The pictures you added of the other phal show that it is in better shape, but it looks dehydrated to me. Are you watering that one with ice cubes as well? One of the problems with the ice cube method, aside from the fact that you're watering a tropical plant with ice, is that an ice cube does not have much water in it, so it is likely not penetrating deeply enough into the medium to actually supply the roots with sufficient water.

I would advise the following:

Repot with a bark medium, avoid moss until you have a better handle on watering. Dallas is a hot, humid climate. Even inside the home you're going to have a higher relative humidity. As such, you don't need to worry so much about having moss in your phals.

Once repotted, give it a good thorough watering with room temperature water until the water flows freely from the bottom of the pot, then leave it alone. Get some cheap bamboo skewers, and use them to determine when your plant has gone fully dry, and water accordingly. Err on the side of under watering until you get a good handle on it. You should see your phal starting to bounce back after a couple of weeks (the leaves will plump back up a bit, but they may never look the same as they once did). From there, watering will become more intuitive, and you will find yourself gaining more confidence as you go along.

Definitely continue reading these forums for some excellent advice. I am a novice myself, and I would have killed my entire collection by now if I didn't have these great folks to help guide the way. :blushing:

Edit: I should also add, that what counts as "easy" or "hard" to care for in the orchid world depends a great deal on your local climate and your gardening practices. Dendrobiums and Cattleyas are the easiest orchids for me to raise, but they might not be the easiest for other growers. You'll find your own preferences as you go along, and some types of orchid will click with you more than others.

they both got 3 cubes, but before that, I would totally drench it in the sink with luke warm water and let it completely drain before I put it back in the pot. this was before I realized all the moss was holding in the water.......so this one is in medium bark with some moss, will repot it with just medium bark.....I was worried about doing it with the new spike but getting it healthy is more important than the spike..... new spikes will come again........thanks so much

I think phals are harder than a lot of other "beginner" orchids. The ones most beginners buy come from food markets and hardware stores, where few employees know much about plants. Then, they are potted in such a way that the roots stay waterlogged with typical house plant care. Phals die faster when treated like this than most other orchids.

I agree with estacion, phals can be very picky about their likes and dislikes. Personally, I think it is worthwhile to try to save the plant, given that it has good roots at the moment. Even if the crown is rotted, it may give you a basal keiki.

Have you tried using a bamboo barbecue skewer in the pot to monitor the moisture of the medium? There is a sticky about this topic in the beginner section. The beauty of this trick is that it will work with any kind of medium or growing conditions. It can help you to figure out just what will help your phal grow well, if it can recover from the crown rot. Here is a link:
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ghlight=skewer

Well, I can't use skewers in my phals because they are all potted in coarse bark, and the skewer would be hard to get in, and probably wouldn't give a true reading.

Tbbh, there's no point. The whole point with coarse bark is that it is impossible to overwater.

OK I did a skewer in the one that has some moss with the bark, it is slightly damp so I will hold off watering even though the top looks dry, can't repot till weekend when i get more soil. The crown rot plant now has bark only with a skewer. btw, the crown is not mushy, it is hard, the other leaf fell off, when I repotted it, I cut back all the bad roots and there were a few good ones, so I say a prayer over it daily. my little rescue has a new leaf, many green healthy roots and I repotted it in bark. As bill said skewers in it make it hard to tell wet vs dry but the stick is slightly damp so I will check it again tomorrow. thanks all for the support, have a great evening

I can't remember if anyone said but don't put them in to big of a pot. If they don't have many roots I have found the smaller the better. I will also put in a couple of none degradable peanuts in the middle just so the water won't set there. You do have to water more often but they like it this way and seem to come back much faster. I have one I was trying to bring back but kept it in to big of a pot and it was just barley hanging on. It would bloom but the blooms were cupped and sort of deformed looking. I had to wait several days before watering which I did like but then I re-potted it put it in a teeny tiny 2 inch pot and it went nuts. Grew out many more roots, I then put it in a bigger pot and it is blooming now with 4 blooms and they are not deformed looking. I think I have finally gotten it on the right track. I am also doing this with my sisters and it is making a come back as well. It is behind mine but it is going to bloom as well.

I seem to remember Ray saying that the peanuts weren't a good idea, but I might be wrong....

I agree that the more open the mix, the more often you need to water, because the air flows thru easily, and that's got to be good for the roots.

:shock: I thought it was ok if they were not made of corn starch or rice or what ever. I do remember he said cork was not good for long term use. I have been using it if I want to fill in room in the pot. I have put it in the bottom of some and in the middle of some. Also when I bought my first Massdies Brian from Seattle Orchid used it in the ones he re-potted for me so I could see how he did it.

I hope it's OK, I haven't had any problems so far

Crown Rot help
 

1) As much as I appreciate the sentiment, sInce when is what I say gospel? I merely espouse my experience, which may-, or may not apply to you! (And this was not the context of peanut usage being debated.)

2) I think the use of one or two peanuts in the very center of the bottom of the medium is a pretty good idea. I invert small net pots to do the same, and that's the principle behind Air-Cone pots.

In a flower pot, all of the evaporation occurs from the top and the interface with the pot wall. The problem with large masses of organic media is that they don't wick very well, so the top and perimeter dry out, leaving a soppy mass right in the center of the root ball. A smaller pot allows more of the volume to dry out quicker. Putting a non-absorbent object in the middle to replace the soppy mass also helps.

Phals....I've killed over 30, then I moved on to the Catts and Oncidiums, so much more resilient when I annihilate their entire root systems due to the stored energy in their pbulbs. If it weren't for my success with them and all the generous help of fellow forum members I would have given up long ago :)

Gospel, no, worth considering, yes. I was sure I had read something you had writtten about the use of peanuts, possibly to do with media holding water or not?

Try Phals in semihydroponics. Do the move during warm weather. The first one I moved is spiking now.. stay tuned for the next episode.

I mounted the 2 I was unable to kill despite them each having like half a root and they've rewarded me nicely. Both put out a bunch of fat roots and one even managed to put out a spike. It had 2 buds of which one blasted but the other should be opening in the next few weeks :)