Phalaenopsis orchid wilting
 

Hi, I'm brand new to orchids...I bought an orchid in bloom about month ago. I repotted it when I got it. It has been doing well until now. The flowers are now wilting on one of the spikes. A couple of them are dry and papery. The flowers on the other spike look good, but there was one bud on it that just dried up before opening. The leaves are green. It has been sitting underneath a high southeast window. Definitely indirect light, and I've been worried it may not be enough. I have watered it every 10 days and I let it drain well. I haven't given it any fertilizer/orchid food. The climate here is becoming quite cold, if that is relevant in any way. Is it just at the end of it's blooming cycle? Do I cut the spike with the wilted flowers now? Or do I just cut the flowers at the base of their stems?

Normal. They won't bounce back after they begin to wilt. Neither will leaves, but you always keep the leaves intact unless they are dying back completely (you would know for sure when that happens) or if it is diseased, etc. if it's just "ugly" but functioning, you leave leaves on.

Anyway, back to the blooms, like I said this is normal. Either A. It's just their time to go or B. Climate change, etc caused to blast. Again, nothing to worry about except that you won't have pretty blooms for much longer.
I bought a Phal orchid at Lowes and almost all it's blooms were blasting (wilting early) but 2 on each spike have stayed strong for a couple months now, showing no sign of wilting anytime soon and it's even budding at the end of the spikes currently. I assume because many of the blooms wilted early, perhaps there was still some blooming hormone left in the tissue and it decided to keep going. Maybe that's not how it works, but makes sense to me.

Any time I'm worried about the health of a plants roots and leaves, I chop the spikes down. Sad, but I don't want it to be an anorexic model, I want it to be happy and healthy as well as beautiful. Haha

So, just let them fall as they will for now and see what happens. Or if the roots are in sad shape, chop the spikes all the way down to about .5-1 inch above where it comes out of the leaf area.

---------- Post added at 11:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:10 PM ----------

PS you could chop one spike and leave the other.

Also, if you're not sure about watering- use a wooden skewer stuck toward the middle of the root mass and see if it is cold/damp.
When my plants are in a plastic pot within a decorative pot, I'll take it out of the decorative one a day or so before I think I have to water it so it dries out a bit more. Unless it needs the heavy pot for stability.

Read the first 12-20 pages of Phal Abuse Ends Here thread/sticky.

Lady gives you good advice. The leaves look good to me I wouldn't worry about it I think it is just a change for it. It may even be before you got it and it is just now showing the signs.

We must remember the poor things have been brought from a greenhouse perfect environment to a store to our house, big changes.

:welcomeflowers:

Ditto what Lady said. Natural senescence (die back), perhaps a bit early due to environment and medium change, but nothing undue going on here. Leaves look good.