Is this root rot or a bacterial infection or bugs or all three?

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by elaerna

For example I've seen several orchids with care notes that say to water with ice cubes. There is even a website called just add ice.

Whoever is behind that site is an orchid criminal in my opinion. Crimes against orchids and plants and misleading people. That person I'm sure has been responsible for maybe thousands or even many thousands of orchid deaths - due to the stupidity or audacity in recommending or instructing people to water their orchids with ice cubes. Either some jail-time or some sort of government-given penalty is required for whoever that person is. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with that sort of nonsense.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

Whoever is behind that site is an orchid criminal in my opinion. Crimes against orchids and plants and misleading people. That person I'm sure has been responsible for maybe thousands or even many thousands of orchid deaths - due to the stupidity or audacity in recommending or instructing people to water their orchids with ice cubes. Either some jail-time or some sort of government-given penalty is required for whoever that person is. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with that sort of nonsense.

I suspect that they regard the fatalities as a way of selling more orchids... part of the business plan, alas.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Roberta

I suspect that they regard the fatalities as a way of selling more orchids... part of the business plan, alas.

True Roberta. The authorities should step in sometime and dish out some penalties and tell them to withdraw the nonsense about the ice cubes from their business website.

[estación seca]

The ice cubes work under certain conditions. Most people can't even tell a live plant from a dead plant. If they remember to water a plant, it's been about 6 weeks since the last time. Those Phals are in tightly packed sphagnum. An ice cube at room temperature melts slowly enough not to freeze roots, and slowly enough all is absorbed by the sphagnum. The plant can just stay alive another 6 weeks.

[SouthPark]

That's true ES ...... there are always exceptions - for experienced growers, or those that really understand what needs to be done. Packing ice cubes ----- maybe regular ones just 20 gram each. I wonder if they even have the fertiliser ice-cubes ------ one application every 2 weeks heheh.

[elaerna]

I kept losing a couple pieces of bark when I'd stick in the bamboo stick and so added a bit more and realized I'm not sure where exactly the bark is supposed to go up to. Is this too high for the bark to go? Should the bark be under where the oldest leaf fell off? Can you get crown rot from getting water in that spot where an old leaf fell off?

06.19.2020 - Album on Imgur

Otherwise there haven't really been any physical changes to the orchid. The one yellow leaf is making its way to falling off by itself and the yellowing on the second one hasn't progressed at all. I didn't water yet but I did soak the bark that I just added.

[Roberta]

If anything, the plant could go lower into the medium, so that the good roots can benefit from the moisture there. However, if you have recently repotted it, better to just leave it. The loss of the bottom leaf is just normal aging, and even the one above will eventually to the same thing. When you water, let the water run through the pot. Flush it well. Then it can dry out for a few days. Another way of determing the rate of water "usage" is to lift the pot each day, and feel how fast it becomes lighter. If you want to quantify it more, you could use a postal scale or kitchen scale, get a weight right after you water, and then over the next few days. When the rate of weight loss goes down, it's getting to the watering point since there's not much to evaporate.

[elaerna]

I guess I'm kind of confused as to what constitutes the crown. So as long as I don't get water in the very top with the newest leaves then it's not getting the crown wet?

Good to know it's not too deep. I've been weighing every day. 758g, then 747g and today it's 734g. Seems to be a linear rate of decrease so far.

[Roberta]

The crown is the little "pocket" at the top, where the new leaves come out. That's where you don't want water sitting. If you get water in there, you can just blot it up with a tissue.

You might wonder, how do Phals in nature avoid standing water in the crown, when rain very definitely comes from above. (And there are no little fairies flying around with tissues...) Well, two things... first, they tend to grow at an angle - from nearly horizontal to upside down, so gravity takes care of the problem. Also, they come from warm areas... even the rain is warm, so they never get the rot-inducing cold-and-wet situation. We grow them straight up for aesthetics, and have houses that can get chilly (at least by tropical standards) so we have to compensate by paying attention to such things.

[SouthPark]

True ------ and, in the wild - it could possibly be a case of - if an orchid has time to adapt to particular conditions, it may be possible for it to just handle conditions like water in the crown. Otherwise, the other thing is - the orchids have lots of seeds, so at least a portion of the orchids can (hopefully) keep surviving if they happen to be able to get growing on whatever they happen to start growing from - as in, bound to be some orchids finding suitable spots to grow nicely. And if the conditions become unsuitable, it might even not make it - part of nature.

It would/will be interesting to see (or find out) whether phals in the wild can handle water in crown - just like some orchids can handle roots being very wet most or all of the time (generally speaking that is - there are conditions).

Also would be super interesting to see if any phal in the wild is found to suffer from crown rot ------ for interest that is. Maybe there are cases. This would be nice to know.