Phalaenopsis Growing a New Phalaenopsis, But in Bad Condition
 

I have a couple of little problems with a Phalaenopsis of mine... I have been quiet buisy during the winter seasosn, so I
didn't get a chance to take very good care of my orchids and I havn't been watering them as much as I should have ... and now, one of my Phalaenopsis is quiet a bit shriveled... I have been trying to water it regularly and all but it doesn't seem to pick
back up... but on top of that it has been growing an other orchid plant and I am not quiet sure what I can do with it, and it is a bit shriveled to... and I have also discovered some scales on one of its leaves...
What can I do with this wonderfull mess? Is there any hope for my orchid?

Thanks!

Yes there is hope! Shriveled can come from a couple things. Either too little water or damaged roots. A picture would help us zero in on the problem. As to scale, there are lots of solutions. Mine is to rub off the critters every time I see them and spray with Neem Oil in between times (like once a week for 3 weeks.) If you've been lax in watering, that's probably the reason for the wilted leaves.

How do I tell if the roots are damaged or if it is just a watering issue? What can I do with the new growth that is growing of one of the stems... it's got one little root (+- 2cm) peacking out... should I leave it there? Or cut it out and put it in a new pot?

Thanks!



Barb

Hi Barb!

I had the same issue as you! New baby Phals coming :)
Your lucky, as your a new Mommy :) Just in time for Mommy's Day ;)

I Let the roots grow and grow, about 1" at least! Sometimes 2"!! I'm happy then, and so are they ;)

I wrote in here, asking the SAME question about 2 weeks ago, and got some really smart folks on here to help me out with lots of stuff on it!!

So read on my thread below and see what they say!! It has many pics of my New baby Phals are in here too, along with my other chids' in my tiny little GH.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ep-coming.html


I hope this help you out Barb!
:goodluck:
And Happy Mommy's Day:biggrin:

BTW Barb,

Here's a pic of an Phal baby that I cut off about 2 months ago of it's mommy! She's doing great too!! Roots keep on on growing :) She was getting too much sun by the looks of those light leaves in the pics, so now she's hanging down lower out of the brighter sun.

I hope you can see in the pic, that brown stick like thing that you can see is anchoring it down with the twist tie wrapping it. That it the actual flower stalk if you say? That I just cut the baby out if it, not to harm the baby at all, leaving about 1" on each side of the baby. Then wrapped her up up some Physan treated sphag moss. And she has never showing any anger at me ;) Always been happy, and growing. This is was my first cut, and didn't know what to do, just did what my heart told me to do for her :)


good luck Mommy ;)

Thanks! That is actualy very good advice! I finaly managed to understand how to resize my pictures so I will post a picture of the Phal and the baby... It is not in the greatest condition though... it's the biggest thing that worries me the most... any more suggestions on how to give it back it's shape? Some have suggested to bag it... others have suggested to repot it... :scratchhead:

It is funny though... this is a stem that I cut down after flowering and it grew this baby... but a couple of months ago it grew another stem and flowered brilliantely! I wonder why...

The roots that have grown out of the pot look pretty healthy at least so I would guess that you just haven't watered it enough. The only way of knowing the state of the roots underneeth though is to unpot it, which might be a good idea because that pot does look a bit small to me, espeically if all those roots have grown out of the top! My phals ususally have no more than one root outside the pot.

When you cut the top of the stem it stimulates the plant to flower again, but flowering and producing keikis are simelar processes and happen at around the same time for phals so that's pretty normal that it would make a keiki and then flower. I saw a huge phal covered in flowers at an orchid society meeting that had a huge keiki still attached and the KEIKI was also flowering!! That was pretty neat to see.

also, a suggestion for the keiki.. I don't normally use sphag at all, but I have a dendrobium with a keiki, and the parent plant is really in bad shape, so I wrapped a bit if sphag around the roots of the keiki and held it in place with a butterfly clip. The keiki is doing great and very healthy looking so perhaps you could try this, it would probably be great for a phal. Water the sphag around the keiki but make sure it dries out a bit between waterings and make sure you leave a little bit of the keiki's roots exposed to the air.