Question
Hi Jim

I've had my Phal for the past 2 years and it has been growing amazingly. It had given rise to 3 new plants in the form of Keikis, which have all flowered. The problem is that now the original plant is in full bloom(the main spike has branches , which are all in bloom), but the leaves are leathery and shriveling. It also has another spike on which a keiki with 3 leaves is growing.

The plant is growing in barkin full sunlight. Curious to see what was the matter, i did take a look at the roots. They looked healthy, but many were dried up and so i removed them. The plant seems to have few roots for its size.

Please help me save my precious.

Answer
Hi Tanusha,

That is wonderful that your phal has made so many new babies but in doing this, it is causing the mother plant to be under quite a bit of stress.  On top of that, it does not have enough roots to support the mother and all her babies, that is why the leaves are becoming leathery and shriveling.  Phalaenopsis orchids store water and nutrients in their leaves and when the roots are not able to provide enough the orchid takes it from the leaves.  Once the leaves become leathery and shriveled, they will remain that way until they are replaced by new leaves that will grow out from the top of the phal.  Do not remove the leaves but allow them to fall off naturally on their own.  

To try and save the mother, remove any keikis that have roots and put them in their own pot.  Also, this may be painful to do but you should remove all of the spikes including the blooming spike on the mother.  Producing blooms and keikis takes a lot of energy and with so much being demanded from the mother plant, it is slowly killing her.  I like to use the comparison of a pregnant woman as an example, in the case of your phal it would be like the woman is always pregnant, having a baby then becoming pregnant immediately after giving birth.  As you can imagine, this would be very stressful on a woman's body with no time to repair and heal itself after giving birth.  

You are growing the phal in full sunlight?  Depending upon where you live, that could be too much light for a phal and could be adding to the stress level of the mother.  

Hope this was helpful in explaining what is happening with your phal and you are able to save it.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.