Yellow leaf

[Martine]

Hi! A leaf on one of my orchids is turning yellow. Is this normal?

[norris]

Hi Martine, It looks like that is the bottom leaf? if it is , yes that's normal.

[kid a]

Looks ok to me, the old leafs usually shrivel and turn yellow when they die, pretty normal.
The other leaves look rally healthy. you haven't noticed any pests or rot or anything like that have you?

[Martine]

Nope, no rot or anything! Thanks for the replies!

[clarita]

plant looks a little young for yellowing leaves. How/where are you growing it? Watering it?

[Martine]

Ya, I was kinda thinking that, too... That it seemed a little young for yellowing leaves (though I am pretty new to this). It gets indirect sunlight and I water it every week, unless it doesn't seem to need it.

[mayres]

Since it is the bottom leaf I wouldn't worry about it at this point. When you repot and see what condition the roots are in that will tell you a lot. The other three leaves look pretty nice.

[Martine]

Thanks!

[BunnytheOrchid]

As long as the other leaves don't start turning yellow, you're probably safe

[Martine]

Ok, I'll keep an eye on it.

[clarita]

Martine can you be more specific with your conditions? I suspect a few things
-under/over watering
- light and temps may not be to her liking....

Although this plant is thought of as a "low light" plant, I grow them in catt light. Culture sheets are the minimum requirements for plants in terms of light. They like more. (within reason) They end up looking like little vanda's with really upright leaves when given more light. You can clearly see how the 2 species are related. Your leaves appear to be stiff and crisp which is a good thing. Low light causes the droop.

Like Mayers said check the roots when its time. Something is going on there...

[Martine]

Clarita , this phal is about 12 feet from a north facing 6'x6' window and about 8 feet from an east facing 4'x4' window. I water it every week. Mist it everyday. I have it on the same shelf as other orchids that have been doing just fine; one that I've had for 6 months now that is growing a new leaf. I've had this particular orchid for about 4 months. Do you think it needs more light? Here are pictures of where it's at right now. The first one is just the shelf that it's on with other orchids, the next one shows where the north facing window is (at the left) and the last one shows where the east facing window is. Let me know if you want to know anything else.
Edit: Oh, and this particular orchid is the third one from the left.
Edit: And I just looked at its roots through the clear pot, and all those I can see are plump and green.

[clarita]

Et Violà! The mystery is solved. Underlight and overwatered.

A few things to consider... At those distances in your location the plant receives no light . (Nada zip 0) Orchids are in most cases equitorial and tropical plants. Think of the light in these regions. (Think of the light if you have vacationed in Florida or the Islands) In your part of the world you could have the plants in a south window and it may likely be insufficient. Tropical light (even shade) is so much stronger. In Florida one needs to wear sunglasses in the shade.

Ok so here is my .02¢ straight up:

Misting only adds water to the plant. It does nothing in terms of raising humidity. It lowers the leaf temp which isn't a good thing unless you ae experiencing astronomical temps. Orchids cannot benefit from an H20 molecule in liquid form with misiting if one is thinking misting does soemthing to boost humidity. Old wives tale. H20 in a vapour/gas form, different story. It's why we use humidifyers.

Ditto with watering. Once a week watering has been too much as well with a plant that underlight and I suspect under heated. You probably have root rot

I see this phenom. all the time up here in Chicago. I have folks bring me their sick and dying or I go and visit.

If it were mine, this is what I would do:

Stop watering/misitng it. That plant in its present place may need a light watering once every 2 weeks. If its wet get a gentle fan blowing near it to dry it out.

I am not of the school of pot pulling a sick orchid. It ultimately leads to more stress on the plant. We can assume there is a problem below the bark line. Treat it in place. I prefer a strong dose of Bayer 3 in 1 every 4 days for 2 weeks.(light watering) KLN rooting hormone won't hurt either. Superthrive may be easier to find

Next I would get the plant some light. Light is the cure to 99% of orchid ailments. I can't stress the importance of light. If you only have E and N windows you may want to seriously think about supplimental light. Wonderlight is tops in my book (orchidlight.com) Well worth the investment. The lights will also raise the heat which I suspect is also needed. Least invasive to your living space, no hoods and special sockets needed. Gorgeous quality light for plants and humans. A 160W wonderlight is not expensive to run, even at 12-14 hours a day. A timer is also something to consider.

The plant(s) will need to be slowly introduced to appropriate light levels. 2 -3 weeks. I would ultimately park the plant about 2-3' from a 160w wonderlight. There is an excellent thread on this board about light and windows. I don't know what part of the world the specs were from so please bear that in mind. You are far far North in North America.

Do not love the plant too much. Think of water as a necessary evil. I tell people to think of water as acid. When acids are used properly in small doses, they can be a help unclog a drain; for example. When used in larger doses they can corrode, if that makes sense.

An orchid may be tolerant of conditions but only up to a point. We are their caregivers have to understand where they come from and try to replicate that environment to some degree in order to get them to show us all their potential and beauty

Hope that helps Let us know how she is doing. Good catch Observation is key. Glad you posted!

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Clarita, since Martine is even further north than you are, you are probably right about needing a little more light. But the comment about giving Phals Catt light is totally off base. If you are doing that, be prepared for a series of unexplained diseases attacking your Phals. I grew my Phals in a greenhouse where I bloomed Catts very well, and every one of my Phals over 25 years of trying would last a year or 2, then slowly look worse and worse until they turned up their heals. For 25 years I couldn't grow Phals for love or money, but that was in the days when one size fit all in my GH. Now I grow Phals just fine, about 3 dozen of them, and I grow them with extra shade cloth to give them about half or less of the light my Catts get.

[clarita]

I don't see how a small increase in light and disease could possibly be related. Can you explain a bit further. Catt light is not huge light. I grow and bloom monster phals in 3000 fc's. Almost no way around that up this way. A south window would be almost like a north window in your parts

A G/H environment is so different than an indoor one

[JLu]

Like Cynthia, we use extra shade cloth over the Phals to keep them about 1800 Fc max. Our Catts get 5000-7000 Fc. Catt light to me is pretty much 50% sunlight to full direct sunlight for some bifoliate species. If you read Fowlie's Brazilian Bifoliate Cattleyas and Their Color Varieties, he describes plants growing in full sun on rock and actually on the beach without shade. Most of these are between the equator and Rio de Janeiro which essentially sits right on the Tropic of Capricorn at 22 degrees 57 minutes south. Bright dude!! (Miami is 25 degrees 46 minutes N for comparison)

We aren't having any problems with either the Phals or Catts.

[mehitabel]

I don't get this "water is like acid" thing for phals. Water is a necessity for every living thing. Standard phals are hybrids of species that originate mostly in the Phillipines, where as one author put it "in the dry season they get as much rain (water) in one day as we get in a whole year in San Diego".

Overwatering can certainly be a problem with phals in pots, but it's a Goldilocks thing: kept too wet, get rot. Kept too dry, mineral salts build up in the pot which literally do poison the roots.

Martine, I would recommend you read some of the excellent culture notes available for phals:

Canadian Orchid Congress:

The Canadian Orchid Congress

Big Leaf Orchids, click "information" in the tabs at the top:

Big Leaf Orchids - online phalaenopsis store

Bedford Orchids, scroll down to V A and B:

Bedford Orchids

These are notes about growing and blooming phals written specifically for new hobbyists by people who have grown phals for years, and won many awards for breeding and culture of them. A few minutes of reading what the experts say will repay you many times over in healthy and blooming phals.

[Martine]

Thanks everyone! LOL! But, I think I'm more confused now then ever! Haha! I don't really know what to do! I moved them closer to a window a few months ago and they got too hot and the leaves got floppy. I moved them away and the leaves perked right back up. I'll try to find a better spot for it. That particular phal is the only one that's not that healty looking, but I'll keep an eye on the rest, too. Oh, and I'm not that far north in North America. Haha! I'm about halfway up! There's a border to the states not far from where I live. We get all seasons here. For example, today it's so hot I didn't even want to go outside. I get the impression sometimes that people think I live where it's always winter! Haha! One time someone asked if there were polar bears where I live and if we had running water! Haha! But I do get that maybe it's a little far north for orchids. And I probably have been watering too much. The roots look fine though. I also just re-potted an orchid for the first time today! Yay! It was crawling out of its pot. I expected to have to remove a lot of roots, but I only removed a few. It had loads of beautiful plump roots. It was pretty cool to see. I was able to do this with the help of great tips from the awesome people on here! So, anyway, I have windows facing all four directions elsewhere in the house. I'll try to see what I can do with those. Where the orchid is right now, I find the sun shines real bright. You can see the sun shining onto the wall behind the plants all day. That room stays pretty warm. Except at night when it drops a bit. But maybe that's just not enough. Like I said, I'm a little lost now! Thanks mehitabel, for recommending those culture notes. I'll get to reading those right away. Thanks clarita for the tips, everyone else, too! What would I do without you guys?

[Brooke]

Martine a good way to check to see if your plant is receiving enough light is to hold your hand over the plant and see if it casts a shadow. If it does, then you have ample light.

Congrats on the good looking roots, it sounds like you are doing something very right.

Brooke

[Martine]

Thanks Brooke! That's an awesome tip! Never would've thought of it!

[clarita]

Holy Smokes! 5000-7000 fc's is alot of light! More like vanda light than catt light. No a phal couldn't handle that without consequences. "Standard catt light" 2500-3500 is what I was referring to. The OP and I are in indoor situations and farther North.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Clara, I had 64% shade cloth on a glass greenhouse in southern California. With losses in the glass, especially when dirty, I expect I had about 3000fc. The reason the Phals had a problem was because this is much more light, about twice, what Phals get in the wild, and as a result they were under stress. Stress means that they are weakened and become particularly susceptible to pathogens. I have had a situation recently that illustrates this. I was using damaged neem oil which the sellers were storing out doors with temps down to at least 10F. This is a no-no according to the MSDS sheets. The result was that the plants were severely stressed, with some even having direct and immediate damage from the neem. But those that didn't show damage directly were still badly stressed, and the result was that I had, from bad to worse, mottled leaves, failure to bloom, a virulent case of fusarium in many plants, too many to count, and just slow withering away. All these symptoms came on weeks to months later, hence the inability to recognize the cause for several years. Most plants are on the mend now, but a few are still slowly going down hill in spite of a ton of systemic fungicides and a systemic bactericide. I even had rust on a couple of plants, one of which I saved. I would say you would be well advised to cut your light back to at least 2000fc.

Martine, you probably do have enough or more than enough light. Even tho you may be further north than Clara, we have to allow for the fact that many of the east co