Phal with signs of rot (or no rot? puzzled)

[lanina]

Hi everyone and thanks for this great forum - learned so much browsing it. I am not only new to orchids but completely new to plants as well and am desperately searching for help. Please excuse my language, I am not a native speaker and am very new to English terms in orchid anatomy and planting medium.

June 20th I got my orchid as a gift, it was beautiful, tall about a meter, six long green leaves, many springs and buds. It continued to flower for about two more months, after which it seemed the flowers and buds had dried out suddenly. The flowers are all gone now and while at first I thought the plant is dying (wouldn't be the first one I'd fail with), after searching the Internet, I realized I needed to cut the spike. Even though it seemed drastic, I cut it all the way down as advised by many sites. Since then, I've started learning about my orchid...I believe it is a Phal (if I'm not mistaken?) and the more I learn the more I seem to worry.

First worrying event was the yellowing of the very young leave growing from bellow the plant (not from the crown) which fell out when just four/five centimeters big. This happened simultaneously with the flowers falling off and spike changing color to brown.The rest of the leaves seem fine, but the very tip of each one (and only the very tip) seem to have dried out - is this normal?

Second, I started observing the roots by looking through the plastic pot (it has holes on its bottom), and while there are many good looking ones, I noticed that one of the roots has gone black at the end, for about 5cm, and another one or two have a part of about 1-2 cm black after which they become normal again. Is this rot? If yes, do I have to cut it out?

I have never re-potted this Phal (nor any other plant for that matter), and hence before attempting such an adventure I really wanna make sure that it's necessary at this point.

The side roots have also gone dry since June, but mostly just on the endings. Do you advise cutting the dry parts of the roots which are sticking out?

I am somewhat encouraged by the fresh new leave on the place of the fallen out one, and by the new leave that seems to be growing out of the crown. Yet, I will be away a lot for the next couple of months, leaving the Phal with hubby alone, and so I really want to make sure it's safe before I go.

As I only started learning about my plant recently (after noticing changes to it) I've added fertilizer to its water only once, about a week ago. I used to water it 1 dcl every 7 days until I read that it is better to submurge it into a bucket of water and let it dry well. I did this for the first time about a week ago and noticed that the side roots came more to life this way.

Last year I lost a Yucca, and I thought I'd never embark on hosting a plant in fear of it dying again. But this orchid was my first wedding anniversary gift from my husband and I really want to try and keep it alive, and happy if possible :-)

Please take a look at it and advise me whether to re-pot, cut off...or just leave it alone.

Thanks in advance!

Your phal looks perfectly healthy to me, but the media in the pot seems a bit old and starting to degrade - that might lead to root problems.
I would suggest to re-pot your orchid into fresh bark mix. While re-potting - check out the roots and peel away all the mushy black stuff.
Choose the pot so that roots fit snuggly and cozy in there, too big pot might lead to root problems too.
Also, since you are new to phals, it might be useful for you to read this thread:
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ends-here.html

Good luck.

[tucker85]

Welcome to Orchid Board. The bottom leaf that turned yellow is perfectly normal. All phals occasionally lose leaves from the bottom. The flowers dying off after a couple months is a normal process also. The roots looks good. Don't worry about one or two roots that look dead. You don't need to do anything about them. The aerial roots (the roots in the air, out of the pot) are the newest and healthiest roots. Don't trim them. When you water, you don't need to dunk the pot in a bucket. You can place it in a sink and run water through the pot and get all the aerial roots wet. You want to water very well when you do water. If dunking works better for you, that's fine also. Fertilize at least once a month but more often at a low dose would be even better. The media in the pot does look like it's breaking down. That's a big phalaenopsis and it will be a challenge to repot it. Do you have any friends that have experience and might be able to help you? There are also videos on YouTube about repotting orchids. You don't need to repot immediately but you may want to do it in the next few months. Good luck.

[lanina]

Thank you both so much for your replies and the nice welcome! It's a relief to have someone who knows these plants have a look. I just spent last two hours reading ''The Phal abuse ends here'' from cover to cover - what a great thread! I feel like I'm learning a lot and could get addicted :-)

The part I didn't quite get is about fertilizers and their marking 20-20-20 for example? What do those numbers represent?

I just took a look at the fertilizer I bought and it seems it's meant to be used from April through September (didn't read well enough before buying:-(

I noticed the NPK label on it which I recognized from this forum. It says ''Solution NPK 4.6.5.'' Should this be OK for at least a month before I get some kind of a Winter fertilizer?

Re-potting. I had a feeling you would suggest it and the thing is, I live abroad and at this time have nobody more experienced to resort to, even though my sister/grand/mother/in-laws would probably do this with their left hand. So it's just me and the following questions may sound dumb but please bare with me.

I have a mixture of pine bark with coconut fibers. Will this be enough or should I also have some hormones/anti-fungal, etc.?

It is written on the bark mix that I should get it humid before using it. Do I soak it into the water for 15 minutes and then rinse off water, like of spaghetti? :-)

I'm not sure if Orchideya was suggesting a bigger pot ? If not, can I reuse the old one after having washed and rinsed it well? I searched several flower shops today and none of them had transparent plastic pots to sell.

Also, if I find some nuts inside the pot, can I wash them and reuse them or do I need new ones?

Last but not the least, when I take the Phal out, I'll take a pic and post it, but just to know in advance - the few black parts of the roots, if mooshy, should be cut off or not? I am not sure how to ''peel'' them as Orchideya suggested.

Thank you again and again and apologies for asking such details that are probably already answered somewhere on this forum. If not obvious by now, I am quite nervous about doing this :-)

Thank you again!

[Rowangreen]

Agree with what's been said.

If you are finding it's drying out unevenly (in the pics it looks quite dry at the top, but still wet down the bottom) then I'd punch a few more holes in the side of the pot towards the bottom to help it dry more between waterings.

[RosieC]

I agree with comments above.

20-20-20 on a fertilser tells you what the main nutrient percentages are. This is the N-P-K figure. N, P & K are the chemical symbols for Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potasium. 20-20-20 is a concentrated fertiliser with equal amounts of each of the three main nutrients. Sometimes it's good to look a the levels of other nutrients as well (especially if using rain or other pure water) but traditionally these are the three that are quoted. Orchids like a fairly weak fertiliser, but if you buy a concentrated one it just means you need to use less each time (and it works out cheaper that way in the long run). Orchids like a good balanced fertiliser, which means the three numbers should be similar to each other. That makes 20-20-20 a good one and it's what I use myself.

I use the same fertiliser year round for Phals. For some orchids that go dormant in the winter it can be good to fertilise less, but while I might water less for phals, and thus fertilise less because I fertilise in the watering, I don't use a different fertiliser.

I would use a 4-6-5 fertiliser like you have at 3.5 teaspoons per gallon (the actual calculation comes out at 3.75 teaspoons per gallon). This is based on using it 3 waterings out of 4. On the 4th you should run plain water through the pot, this flushes out any build-up of the fertiliser salts and helps stop the roots being poisoned by a build up of those. I calculated it using Ray's website here as he's the expert in this and I trust his measures more than what's written on the bottle (he's aimed it at year round use, with no need for a bloom booster, which is a waste of money anyway). Fertilizer Mixing Calculators

[RosieC]

Re-potting... your bark/coconut fibre mix should be fine as long as it's not to fine/broken down. Orchids like plenty of air around the roots as well as enough moister and getting that balance is the key. If it's too fine the gaps can get blocked by water and so no air gets in, the roots then suffocate and die. This is why we don't plant orchids in soil, in nature they grow clinging to trees getting plenty of air. That's what people try and mimic with mounting orchids, but that's not practical for everyone. So when potting the medium needs to be airy.

I don't use any hormones or anything when repotting. I don't think there is any need if the orchid is healthy.

Usually you would soak your mix for several hours, possibly 24 hours or more. Then drain it off.

Orchids like to be tight in the pot. This is because the medium dries more easily if there is more root compared to the amount of medium, and that in turn helps air get to the roots. To much medium without roots running through it will stay wet for a long time. That being the case we usually advise that the smallest pot the roots will fit back into is the one you should use. Sometimes that does mean going up a pot size, more often you will put it back in the old pot, if there are a lot of dead roots you may want to reduce the pot size.

If roots are mushy then cut them off, if they are firm keep them. I'm not sure what is meant by peeling them. I don't do anything that sounds like that.

Good luck, and don't worry too much. They are pretty tough things