twin orchids one does well the other loses all its leaves
 

Hi! My name is Madi, I have kept orchids through university (3yrs now) and am pretty much self taught and very much a beginner. I used to get my orchids by picking them up from shops when they are out of bloom and on sale for cheap. That being said I can keep them alive but never had one bloom until I found a specialized orchid shop that "babysits" and even then my only flowering plant got bud blast and lost all but one bud that isn't holding on so good. So I'm still struggling through understanding how to get the perfect balance.
So the story goes Dad wanted to put orchids on the front step on the wall. I warned him that they aren't meant for outside but they would be out of direct sunlight and brought in at night and we live in a warm climate. So I bought him 2 orchids from my shop I found. They were 2 big plants each with 2 flowering stems and 4 or 5 huge leaves. I believe they are moth orchids. So at first they both did really well they kept blooming and all the buds grew and bloomed but then one of them started losing its leaves. Eventually all the leaves came off and the flowers died. The other orchid, mind, was still blooming away. They lived in the exact same conditions 2 ice cubes every 10 days they came in and out at the same time. So when the plant lost everything we were confused. Dad gave me the "dead" one and I'm trying to save it. I have taken it out cleaned out all the dead roots with a sterilized knife, rinsed the good roots, and repotted it in a fresh bark mix. So my questions are why did it"die" and how can I save it?

Let's say that they were two absolutely identical orchids but from different nurseries.... from seedlings, one nursery feeds and waters twice a week.... the other does it once a week. One is therefore hardened off more than the other.... I've been told they like the same conditions... not the same as each other... but the same conditions that they, as individual plants have grown accustomed. You can apparently gradually introduce plants to different conditions to those to which they are accustomed... but throwing them outside like that is probably quite a shock.

On the other hand, maybe a pest, virus or infection was involved in the demise of one, but not the other.


I loved reading your idea of an orchid hospital... :)
Gaz

See that's just the thing is that my new orchid shop is a nursery. I bought them in the green house. I'm pretty sure that from step one they have been in the exact same conditions as each other. The 2 ice cubes every 10 days is what the green house attendant told me to tell dad. Some of the roots that I trimmed were squishy and yellow and from all my times repotting I have never seen that. Normally the good ones are green or silvery and hard and the old ones are like paper over a string. So I'm wondering if it was an infection like you said? can something cause the leaves and roots to rot off?

Overwatering is usually what causes the roots to rot but I doubt that's the case here. Maybe one had recently been repotted and the mix held less water than the other which might have had old mix that held onto more moisture? Where exactly in the US is this?

This happened over a 3 month period, for 2 months dad had them and every time I came home they were happy and then I came home in the 3rd month and it only had one leaf left and he had already cut the stem. It occurred in the foothills of North Carolina during early fall when they had room temperature weather outside and if there was any rainy or cold or particularly hot days they remained indoors. They were only decorative for the front porch that leads to the front door and weren't permanent. It's now into the 4th month and the happy one's flowers had just started to droop when I saw it 2 weeks ago.

I have no idea why one would be doing well and the other one not, but if I were you I would take pictures, is it in a clear pot? I think you'll get more accurate advice with pics.

I don't have it in a clear pot right now but I can post a pic of the top roots if that helps, you have to remember that it has been repotted and with me for 2 weeks now though.
I think I attached a pic but I'm not exactly sure how this works. I also noticed when taking the picture that the bark mix is dry (I haven't watered in 4 days) but the roots feel wet as if they were releasing water somehow...
They also are dark green instead of the usual shimmery silver green of my other plants but that may just be because there are no leaves to absorb the sun that the roots have extra chlorophyll?

Since it doesn't have any leaves I would recommend taking it completely out of the pot, if you don't have leaves to photosynthesize then the roots need to do so and they can only do it when exposed to light.

Unfortunately it looks to me like it probably suffered from crown rot and that's why the leaves fell off.

It's pretty difficult for a plant to come back from this state but your best bet is probably to take it out of the mix and leave it in the pot by itself so it can use the roots to photosynthesize and mist the roots often enough so it absorbs water.

I also vote for crown rot. And suspect that your dad may have watered it more than a couple ice cubes a week. Once the leaves started to wither, he may have watered it and if the water was allowed to sit for very long the crown would rot. It is difficult to say exactly why without the benefit of pics when it was starting to wither. Normally orchids are killed off because they are watered too much and at the wrong time. Next they die from not enough water aka the infamous ice cubes once a week. Next, once they start to decline, they are overwatered or fertilized to death. Down the list is sunburn and wind damage. Seldom are viruses, molds, funguses, or bacterial death . Most of the time it is over watering. When they were both in the greenhouse environment, even the weakest could survive. Once out in the harsh environment of front steps, wind, heat, cold, and dog pee could effect them. The media could have been just right in one and too compacted in the other. But looking at the desicated, dead corpes here, I would vote for crown rot. In any case it is death by neglect. Sorry. Save yourself some frustration and go to Home Depot and get another rescue phal. Don't try and be miss nightinggale and save the dead.

Hi madimae,
I suggest you do some research, this site offers excellent advice on how to care for phals.
But please stop watering phals with ice cubes!