Question
QUESTION: Hello Wayne,
I have a phalenopsis and i bought it a year ago and it was full of blooms. It has never rebloomed and about a month ago some new buds started coming out of the spike and they started to open up and then all of a sudden all the blooms turned brown and fell off.
The blooms never opened up. I was wondering if im not fertilizing
it correctly?
I fertilize every other week with a 20-10-20(i think)urea free green fert and i mix a teaspoon in with a gallon of water water it like I was doing a regular watering.
Thank you!
amanda

ANSWER: Amanda, I suspect that you did not repot your plant when it finished flowering.  Because orchid potting mix degrades rather rapidly, repotting it in fresh orchid potting mix, allows more air to circulate at the roots. Your plant may be suffering from root rot which prevents nutrients to get to the leaves and flower spike. In nature, phalaenopsis orchids grow on trees and thrive on the sir that surrounds the roots.  Most other plants grow differently so orchids have special requirement when confined to pot culture.  If you are uncertain how to proceed with repotting, let me know and I'll walk you through the steps.  The effectiveness of watering and feeding is greatly dependent upon the potting mix in which the plant is  growing.  It will do little good, and substantial damage, to water and feed an orchid in a potting mix that has broken down as the potting mix retains too much moisture and permits little air to get to the roots.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Wayne,
After it finished blooming last march, I took it to my local plant shop and they repotted it for me! The bark looks good(before the bark, it was a mossy mixture)
I hope they repotted it properly!
The leaves look good so Im still not sure what im doing wrong.
I might add my other orchid has also not bloomed in a really long time but the leaves look good and it has the Kiki's that you explained to me.
Let me know what you think and thanks again!
amanda

Answer
Good for you. I hope the potting mix they use is more than just fir bark.  Most good phalaenopsis potting mixes have several ingredients including perlite (a white rock) and some inorganic ingresients such as charcoal or lava rock. These inorganic ingredients continue to allow air movement when the fir bark starts to deteriorate.  Also, I would check to see that you have plenty of drainage holes in the pot.  If a plant fails to bloom, I would check the leaf color.  If it is dark green, this means that the plant needs more light.  Light is important to promote bud formation. The leaves should be more of a yellow green color to promote flowering.