Dry, wrinkly leaves on my orchid
 

Hello everyone,
I am new to growing orchids. I have acquired a few as gifts (I do not know the type) two of the 4 have developed dry, wrinkly leaves like they are not getting enough water. The leaves on the other two look fine. The roots on all 4 look a bit weathered. Although, I read (on this site) that having green or red tips on the roots was good and the two with non weathered leaves have green tips. I water then in the sink about once a week and fertilize once a month with a bloom booster (I know now that this is not the best :)) they sit on a South facing window and get about 3 to 4 hours of indirect sun. I am just at a loss as to what I should do. I did repot them (they were very root bound) about 6 months ago. I used clay orchid pots and bark for filling. Any help would be great. I am posting a picture of the worst one.

Oh my! Yup, dehydrated for sure be that from under or overwatering (the later which would kill the roots needed to supply water to the plant as well). If the roots look good and healthy, then Id say its from underwatering. If you put them in new bark medium, then you might want to think about watering a bit more frequently as new bark hasn't decomposed enough yet to hold water. I find when I repot that I must water about twice a week for a few months and then slowly go down to once a week or so.

Did they come wrinkled like that though? or is this a fairly recent development?

I agree, very dehydrated, likely from one of the two reasons Paul mentioned. Did you soak the bark overnight before re-potting? New bark just doesn't hold much water at first and soaking is important. If the roots are healthy, I would consider giving this plant a good soak for 20 mins and then drain it well as your watering routine for a few weeks. Of course only soak the pot and roots and don't get water in the crown. You could also mist those surface roots daily to help hydrate this plant.

Thanks for the advice. I am going to try watering more. Do you think I should use a dilute fertilizer?

---------- Post added at 05:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------

I did soak the bark overnight. The only thing I can think of is maybe it is because I switched to clay pots..... They were in plastic. I have read that you have to water more if the orchids are in clay pots. Could this be the 'dryness' reason?

Most definitely it would contribute to it. Clay breathes and so the contests will dry out faster.

That could be the reason, if the plants seemed to be doing fine before the transplant. Clay (unglazed) breathes, allowing airflow amongst the roots, so the medium is going to dry out much quicker than in a plastic or un-breathing pot. If your watering regimen cannot keep up with this drying process and you don't see any improvement in the leaf turgidity after changing your routine (after several days), you may want to consider changing the potting medium to something that holds water better, like sphagnum moss. Or going back to a pot that does not allow for such quick evaporation.

Fertilizing an already-stressed plant isn't going to make any type of a visible difference in this situation. You need to rehydrate it. Try putting the plants somewhere more humid, like your bathroom, and leave the shower running for a while every day, until you see the leaves start to firm up again. I've snapped a couple plants back to hydration that way in the past. Always found switching from bark to sphagnum when I pick up dehydrated plants tends to work miracles rather quickly.

Thanks for the help. I am going to go out today and get some new potting material and some different pots. I appreciate all of the information. I will try the shower trick. I will keep everyone posted on how the orchids are doing. :-)

I find that once Phal leaves have been shriveled for a while, they may not plump up completely again. New ones will grow nice and firm once the roots are happy. So don't be fooled into over watering and trying to get the old ones to return to like new. If you are re-potting it, I would be tempted to put some of those roots into the pot. They may get a bit more moisture in the pot. Let the centre of the media get very close to dry before watering each time.
I like a mix of moss and bark. The moss retains moisture and the bark keeps it open and allows pockets of air in the pot.

I repotted all 4 orchids. The one in the picture was so sad :-( some of the roots were dead and I felt so bad. I put all the orchids in spag moss (I soaked the moss well) and changed their containers to plastic or ceramic. Hopefully this will fix the problem. They are in a South facing window. Do you think I should move them to an East facing window? Thanks again for the help.

Make sure you allow the sphagnum to dry out in the middle of the pot before each watering. Phals are not high light plants, so depending how close to the window and how bright it is, south can be a bit much. East might be better, especially as they need to grow some roots.