Hello everyone

[new orchid owner]

I am new at this....I just received my first orchid 2 weeks ago as a gift from my neighbor. When she gave it to me it had three big green leave and two chutes with flowers on them. However, one of the chutes was turning yellow--she said b/c it was old so i didnt think anything about it. I have only watered it once a week and I have it on a bed of pebbles for humidity. Last week all 5 flowers fell off of the shute that had turned yellow, then the other day I came home and one of the leaves had fallen off. I really didnt think anything about it--I thought my cat may have somehow managed to knock all of them off-- Then again today a second leave fell off. When I looked at the base of my plant where my leaves were, it is mushy and turning yellow. I pulled some of the bark away and noticed the roots were dark and shriveled. Meanwhle I do still have a chust that has 3 blooms on it with a new shoot coming out so I thought it was healthy. The lady told me she just repotted it, it is currently in a terra cotta pot and is planted in mulch. I have also noticed a few gnats--not many only 2 or 3. Please advise me on what to do, as I have been searching for hours to try and help my plant. I am not sure what type of orchid it is---it has 5 yellow petals with brown speckeling. Any help at all would be great!!!!!!

[myorchid]

Welcome, can you post a few more times so that you can post a picture of it? That would help.

[jay]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I am sorry that you are having troubles with your first orchid. Let's see what we can do about that. Please keep in mind that all of this advise really depends on what orchid you have and what are you growing conditions.

First, we really need to know what type of orchid you have. This will change the advise given for your plant. If you look through the photo gallery you will see tons of pictures of orchids. Try to pick a plant that has similar shape to yours. Keep in mind that the colors will probably be different.

Second, it will help to know where you are located. You can change this in your profile. We are from all over the world with very different growing conditions. This again will change the advise depending on your growing conditions.

Now for the plant. If you saw that the roots were brown and mushy then they are getting overwatered, mix is not draining well enough, or possibly watering at night. This will cause the brown mushy roots which is actually a bacterial rot. You may want to do a search for the skewer method on this site to see a great way to determine when to water. Again, how frequent you water will be determined by the plant and growing conditions.

As for the leaves falling off, it really depends on which type of orchid you have to determine how serious it is. Since you have already mentioned the roots, I will have to guess that it might be struggling all together.

The extra blooms could be the plant trying to carry on it's genetic code before it dies. A very stressed plant might bloom for this reason. If you could get a picture of the plant from a couple of different angles it would help members see what you are talking about.

I hope that we can help you with you new orchid. Stay tuned, I am sure you will get more advise soon.