Flowers Drooping

[cgrant]

Recently purchased a Phalaenopsis (white) and have tried to care for it per enclosed instructions. Afer approx three weeks the flowers are drooping.

I live in southern New Hampshire and the outside temps are now around 30-40 evening and 40-55 outside. We keep the house at about 60 during the day while at work. We water the plant about once a week and have fertilized it once with a high nitrogen content.

Wondering what the cause of this condition may be and what to do about it.

Also, wondering whether this means it's time to prune off the flowers and if so, where and how to cut etc.

Thanks

[atcrosby]

Flowers drooping could be many things and not all of them bad.

Were the flowers in bloom when you bought the orchid? If so, there's no telling how long they have been open and it could just be it's time. What you need to do is to look at the leaves and determine if they are "perked up" or limp. If they are limp then it's a good bet there's something not quite right with the roots.

You mention that you water once a week. Depending on the humidity in the house, size of the pot, etc. you may be watering too much or too little. Cynthia Prescott posted an excellent set of instructions on how to tell when an orchid needs to be watered. The link for this is skewer-use-for-watering-of-orchids.html. It's quick easy and it works!

You can also pull your orchid out of the pot to see if the roots are in good shape. Good healthy roots should be firm not mushy. If the roots are mush you will need to repot. There are instructions on here on how to to do that bu seaching.

Phals are very hardy and they recover quickly so don't dispair. It takes quite a lot of abuse to kill these things and that's what makes orchids so interesting. They will adapt to you provided you follow the basics on watering and feeding them.

Good luck.

[atcrosby]

i did the search for you and check out this thread on a similar problem someone was having with their Phal...

Phal Trouble...


Oh and on your question regarding cutting the flowers, let nature take care of that. The phal knows when it's time for it to come off.

[Aniko]

The recommended fertilizer is a balanced type like 20-20-20 or something close to this as 19-31-17. Fertilizers labeled as "orchid food" have such a balanced composition, and recommendation for high dilution: 1/4 tsp per gallon, because orchids are relatively slow growing plants and need less.

High nitrogen content stimulates leaf growth, phosphate: blooming.
Aniko.

[cgrant]

Thanks Tom.