Is my phal dying?
I've had my two phals for about a month or so, one I bought from IKEA and it was in tightly packed sphag and the roots didn't look so good. The other I got from Home Depot and it's in some sort of bark mixture, lots of roots that seem okay.
Both of my phals sit together, by a west facing window (being winter there isn't a huge amount of sun). They are in plastic pots with drainage holes and sit in decorative pots that have stones all in the bottom. I don't know what the humidity is, but the temperature is pretty steady at 20 C/68 F, sometimes it dips lower depending on the temperature outside, no lower than 18-17 C though. I water every 7-10 days, depending on the bamboo skewers and how the roots of my second one look. I also bought some fertilizer for orchids, I followed the directions but used less than it said to. I've used it twice now.
My IKEA orchid I repotted in a bark mixture and I soaked the bark and trimmed all the dead roots/put cinnamon on them. I don't think I did the best job repotting but it was my first time and I didn't want to pack it too tightly incase I damaged any of the remaining roots.
There hadn't been any new visible growth so I thought maybe it was diverting energy into growing new roots (can't see them through the pot since they were pretty short).
First I noticed that the main stem started to droop, and now I'm worried because I noticed that one of the lower leaves turned yellow and eventually fell off, now a second leaf is yellowing and about to fall off. the other three leaves are all still darkish green. Also I wonder if maybe I potted it too low in the container?
It has three buds, and they looked fine (one has been open slightly for a while) but now the smallest is turning yellow and is going to fall off any time now. The other bud looks like it's going to go the same way. Also the flowers are crinkled looking in some places.
I have a feeling it's just a matter of time, but did I do something wrong that lead to this? I really like this phal it's flowers are pure white with dark pink centers.
Now for my Home Depot phal, it's winter here and I know that the shock from environment changes can cause bud blast, since I bought it two buds opened but the other two yellowed and fell off. It's leaves all look good, there are 6 all together, two small ones on the bottom. They stand almost at 45 degree angles though, while my other phals leaves hang over the pot and are much longer.
From what I can see the roots are green, some of the roots look hollow, not the majority and they don't look brown or mushy. I haven't examined the interior roots because I don't want to take it out of it's container in case it goes the same way as my other one.
So basically, is the fate of my first phal sealed? & did I do something to cause it? So I can know for next time...
Any help is appreciated, thank you in advance!
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