Question
I just received an orchid bouquet from a friend. It came with about 7 orchids together in this huge pot. I noticed about a week after I received it that some of the leaves were falling off from the stem. No shriveling or slowly dying off at all. One of the Phals I noticed the roots are brown mushy and the plant smells a bit. My question is should I separate the Phals & repot them or wait until the flowers completely die off? Im worried that one Phal might have a fungus and it might spread to the others.

Answer
Hello Sophia,

Yes, it does sound like there may be a fungus present that is causing the leafs to fall off.  How it got there, I'm not sure but the usual cause is water left on a leaf(s) overnight which is a prime breeding environment for the growth of fungus.  

Plus, you said that the potting media smells which could mean that the media has broken down and rotting.  Rotting media can then cause the roots to rot which explains the brown mushy roots.  

From your description of the problems your orchids are having, it probably would be a good idea to unpot them and to repot them into fresh orchid media.  Also, keep in mind that you may need to use care in handling those that still have flowers on them as you don't want to knock them off.  

Before unpotting them, purchase a bag (1 cubic foot size) of medium grade orchid media for phalaenopsis.  You probably do not need to buy new pots as you can reuse the current ones, but to be sure check to see if there are smaller pots within the huge one.  When ready, take the individual phalaenopsis plants out of the huge pot, then one by one remove them from their pots and clean off as much of the old media from the roots.  Also, cut off any rotten roots.  Begin repotting by placing a little media in the pot then lower and center the phal. in the pot so the bottom leaf is level with the pot, add media until the pot is full then gently press down to compact it and add more as needed to fill the pot.  

Once you are done repotting, soak the pots in lukewarm water for about 30 minutes then place them in a bright shady place where temperatures are between 60F to 85F, humidity is above 50% with some light air movement available.  That's about it.  

For future reference, it is best to do any watering in the morning to allow enough time for water droplets on the leafs to evaporate before nightfall.  It also would be a good idea to occasionally feed them with a balance type orchid fertilizer to help promote growth and blooming next year.  

Hope this helped.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.