Question
A couple of months ago a friend bought me a phalaenopsis orchid from Trader Joe's. Everything was fine until a couple of week's ago when one of the leaves started turning yellow and eventually fell off. I thought perhaps I was over-watering it. I noticed that my orchid was actually planted in two small plastic containers each one smaller than the other and both within a terra cotta pot. I assume this is so that they use less potting medium. But when I lifted the plastic pot and the orchid out of the terra cotta pot some of the roots looked mushy and the potting mix was pretty broken down. I bought more orchid mix but the bag said don't repot if the orchid is in bloom or in spike. What does that mean--I got the "in bloom" but what is in spike mean? When can you repot? Right now it still has some flowers on it, but a couple of the other leaves are starting to go yellow and I'm afraid I'm going to lose it. Help!

Answer
Hello Larae,

It really is unfortunate and a disservice to persons buying orchids when they put the pot into a ceramic pot without drainage holes in the bottom.  What happens is water has no where to go so stays in the pot until taken up by the orchid, unfortunately, unsuspecting people water it before all of the water is gone.  When orchid roots are kept wet for too long, they slowly die and become mush.  It also hastens the breakdown of the potting media which also causes roots to die.  

Leaves falling off may be due to a fungus infection.  If you water the orchid in the evening, some water may get on the leaves and the fungus spores love cool wet conditions of night time.  It is best to do any watering in the morning to allow time for water droplets on the leafs to evaporate before night fall.  

The instruction about not repotting when in bloom is correct, spike is the term for the stem the flowers are on.  

What you should do is keep it out of the ceramic pot, place it on a counter where it will be in bright shade and temperatures between 60F to 85F.  Hold off on watering until the potting media becomes almost dry.  

Hope this has been of some help.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.