stem died a year ago, still no new stem????

[lucidruthie]

Hey everyone! I inherited a Phal at my job when I started a few years ago, and when I started, it had a nice long stem with several flowers.

maybe about 3 months later, I came back in on a Monday after the weekend and found both the flowers had fallen off. Soon after, with in a week or so, the stem started to turn brown and dry up. The leaves and roots seemed fine.

Someone advised me to snip off dry/dead part of the stem, which was pretty much the whole thing. I did, and I can still see the little tiny dried up stump where it used to grow from.

Over the next months, it seemed fine, and nothing changed. Then about a year ago, the roots started to dry up as well. I have been watering it maybe once a week, less if it feels too moist. The leaves stayed OK, nothing weird happened.. just the roots drying up.

Soon after that, the plant started growing new leaves like CRAZY! it went from having two big leaves, to currently having 9 pretty good size ones now. then it started growing new healthy roots as well! it currently has several very healthy long roots and I can see some smaller ones under the stringy stuff on top of the potting.

However, I haven't seen any sign of a new stem, and the old stem stump is very dried up and most definitely dead. The rest of the plant seems to be healthy and doing well, although it has definitely halted it's rather speedy leaf production and seems to just be doing it's thing, hanging out, etc.

I figure it needs to be repotted for sure, although I can't say I know much about orchid potting, nor do I want to buy a 20lb bag when I only have 1 small plant. I think i got scared from reading stuff about "shocking" the plant when you repot it, and I don't want to hurt it in my attempt to help it.

I also occasionally add a tiny bit of "orchid food" into the water, but maybe once every few months.

I can take some photos if that helps... any info you can give me will help immensely as I'm pretty clueless and I've never been known for being good with plants, regardless of how much I love to admire and photograph them

thanks in advance for any and all suggestions!

[kmarch]

Your description is quite good and I suspect one of 2 reason's why your phal has not rebloomed:
1) Autumn temperature drop - Phals need a 10-15F night time temp drop in order to initiate their flowering cycle. Perhaps you have your phal at work (you mention you got it when you started a new job) and work places/offices are usually quite even in their temps.
2) Light - The phal may not be getting enough light where it is at. east windows give more light than north, south more than east. You want ot keep it away from direct light though. Again if you have it in your office you may have glazed or tinted windows which dramatically cut light levels.

You should be able to go to a DIY store in your area and get a smaller bag of mix. Phals need to be repotted every couple of years. They need the fresh mix to prevent things like rotting roots.

Welcome to the forum and happy growing! Ask lots of questions too!

[lucidruthie]

thanks for your reply!!!

It's in a southern window, although thanks to scaffolding there isn't a "lot" of light, although there is still some indirect light making it through.

you're right about it being at my office... i'm not totally sure about the temp in the office at night... i suppose that if things don't improve I might end up bringing it home... however!

my coworker has a phal as well, and hers dropped it's flowers about a month ago, and the stem is nice and healthy and looks like it's going to start producing flowers again soon.... however hers was more recently acquired so perhaps the fresher potting medium has something to do with it? I don't think mine had been repotted anytime recently to when i got it 2 years ago, and it's definitely in need... whereas my coworkers plant was bought for her from a flower shop about 6 mo ago

I will definitely go to one of the local flower shops around and ask about mix. the only place I found it before was home depot and it was a super huge bag, but I admittedly didn't ask around and I'm right near the flower district so I have no excuse

[Rocinante]

Hey lucidruthie,
the 'stem' you speak of is actually called a "spike". If you keep your Phal at the office, I suspect that insufficient light is the culprit in your plant's failure to bloom. It's good that it is growing leaves like crazy, though.

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by lucidruthie

...It's in a southern window, although thanks to scaffolding there isn't a "lot" of light, although there is still some indirect light making it through....

Yeah a south window even if it is somewhat shaded is probably plenty of light so I suspect the culprit is the temperature drop, rather the lack thereof.

Originally Posted by lucidruthie

my coworker has a phal as well, and hers dropped it's flowers about a month ago, and the stem is nice and healthy and looks like it's going to start producing flowers again soon....

Actually both the rebloom like your co-workers phal and the dying off fo the spike like yours, are both normal occurances. Some hybrids are more prone to reblooming than others.

[mayres]

I have several phals in a NE window ledge - office environent. Everyone talks about the temp drop most people get in the autumn as triggering the start of flower spikes - however, my phals have been blooming EVERY YEAR with uniform office temperature year round (go figure). For some reason, one of them typically starts spiking (for the past three years) the beginning of March and by June is fully grown and flowering.
If you tranplant your phal into bark be sure and soak the media 24-48 hours first. Depending upon the quality of the bark, you may also need to soak/water it for the first few months until the bark starts properly absorbing and retaining water - it is fairly common for people to complain about their phals suffering from dehydration issues after transplanting into bark which is not retaining enough moisture to satisfy their plant's needs. Be careful not to overpot - if you go up a plant size dont increase much - check out the roots and remove any dehydrated dry ones or black/mushy/stringy looking ones. If it will go back into the same size pot that would not be uncommon for repotting phals.
Good luck!
Mike

[lucidruthie]

wow you guys are awesome!!!! thanks again!!! i'm gonna apply all these tidbits of info and keep you updated

[marinamore]

Lowes has smaller packages of the special reporting mix for orchids:

Better-Gro® Special Orchid Potting Mix, Item #: 25321
Gives your orchid a fresh healthy start
High quality, ready to use, specially blended all purpose orchid potting media
4 dry quarts

[patticake]

Better Gro is good- I like Schultz's a little better for my area. Up north here I found the better-Gro dried out a little too fast. While you don't want sogginess around your roots, The Schultz's seemed to stay moist a little longer for me. Places where it's more humid that might be a problem.