Question
Sick Phalaenopsis
What is wrong with my orchids? One of my phals has wrinkled leaves that are dark around the edges, some others with wrinkled leaves and some with split leaves at the ends and some with things that look like line scars. They are growing new roots and stems or are in full bloom. They were recently repotted in an orchid mix with coconut bark once every ten days or so I sit them in filtered water mixed with superthrive and a little physan20 for about 10 minutes. The coconut bark causes air to bubble out so I thought they may not be getting or retaining enough moisture. I previously lost a phal to root rot so I thought adding a little physan to the watering would help prevent that. They are on my screened porch no direct light temprature ranges at coldest rarley 60 to 85 daytime. Please help! Thank you, Terri
AnswerHello Terri,
Let's take this one phal at a time.
No. 1 with wrinkled leaves is showing signs that it is becoming dehydrated due to the roots in the pot not taking up moisture. Although you have been watering it every 10 days, it may be that the roots have rotted and thus unable to take up moisture. If you unpot it, I believe you will find most, if not all the roots are soft and mushy.
Others with split leaves could be suffering from a lack of good humidity around the phal. Phals love humidity, so try to keep it above 50%.
Lines appearing on the leafs could be the early signs that they are starting to have wrinkles.
As for watering them, it is best to wait until the potting mix becomes barely moist before watering them again. Watering when the mix is still fairly wet (moist) can be a primary cause for rotten roots.
Before you repotted with the coconut orchid mix, did you soak the mix for 12 hours several times? While coconut mixes are great for orchids, the coconut needs to be soaked in water several times to leach out the salts within it. Salt is very toxic to orchid roots.
While superthrive and physan 20 are very good products, as the saying goes "too much of a good thing". I would suggest using them no more than once per month.
Phals love being in bright shade with maybe an hour or two of early morning direct sunlight. Temperatures above 60F but with about 2-3 weeks of night temperatures around 55F in the fall will help start the bloom cycle.
Hope this helped.
Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.
