Is this phal sun damaged?
 

Hi All,

So first, and intro about this plant:

I bought it as a severely neglected little plant. It essentially had no anchoring roots, only arials. I have had it for several months now, and it has put out new arials and grown a leaf. It is trying!

Just today, I noticed one large leaf was starting to turn yellow, and another was getting yellow near the margins (the third, small yellow leaf was near the bottom, I assumed it was getting ready to fall off). I unplanted, the roots look okay, a little dry (almost time to water, we water once every 7-9 days). What do you guys think?

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My opinion - not sun damage. It's just trying to make a comeback and loosing the bottom leaves b/c it's putting energy into a new leaf and roots. Keep consistant. New growth is a good sign, but frequent distubances can slow things down. Just be patient.

Oh good! The cut leaf just turned yellow very suddenly, and I panicked. This is the first time it has been unpotted since I got it. I know it had very weak roots to begin with, so I was concerned that the few it had had rotted (I am a bag girl and water my 'chids by submersing the pots for 5 minutes once a week). Good to know it is just doing it's thing!

Let's let someone else chime in before we close the book on this. I'm no pro.

I'm not an export either, but I agree with Royal.

I think that the roots are not enough to support all the leaves and it is sacrificing them to concentrate on the new one.

The only thing I would advise is to water with lukewarm water or maybe just slightly warmer. I have found this has helped prompt root growth in mine and if you can encourage it to grow roots as well as leaves that will help it support a greater number of leaves in the future.

Here's my 2 cents... regarding the sudden yellowing of a leaf-- I've noticed that when phals are preparing to sacrifice a leaf, it may look unhealthy and all but one day you'll wake up and the leaf will be totally yellow and dead. I've lost a few leaves myself and have noticed that they can go from looking sickly, but green, one day to the next morning being dried out and yellow.

If you have a new leaf and roots growing, give semi-hydroponic method a try. I have a phal that was in a similar state as yours but was pushing a few new roots-- its hanging in there and getting better.

I'm not familiar with your growing conditions, but from the pics, I'm thinking your plant needs more frequent watering, especially with new medium. My phals never dry out completely, and are doing quite nicely. Just a thought.

Kim

I'm going to agree with the plant sacrificing leaves. Have you tried to use a rooting hormone, such as KLN or SuperThrive? I have had a few orchids that were rootless grow roots from using SuperThrive. My suggestion is to re-pot, leave it alone. Water once a week, or when you notice the medium is dry, using a root hormone. Clear pots are great for seeing when you need to water. You will be surprised at the number of roots you will get.

So, I submerge my pots for 5 minutes to water (I find the medium becomes more saturated that way). Should I just ad some rooting hormone to the water that it soaks in?

I use a drop of KLN in 4pints of water each time I water. I also dunk the pots for a few minutes and I mix both the KLN and the fertiliser in.

Once a month I flush with plain water with neither KLN or fertiliser in it.

I also use luke warm or slightly warmer water each time I water and I really think that is helping with root growth as I started that before I started with the KLN and the new root growth started with the warmer water.