Help! My mother is killing her phal

[Deby53]

Hi! I stopped by my parents house tonight & took one look at my mother's phal & took it away from her. She got it around Easter (same time I got my first) Still has a few flowers but leaves are all wrinkled. When I pulled it from original plastic pot, the roots look mushy. I saw one healthy looking root close to the top. There's a little bit of bark in the pot but it's mostly moss. I finally got both of them to admit that they're both watering it (daily by the looks of it). I've told them not to water so much but they're older & keep forgetting. The leaves are sticky on the underneath side. Can it be saved? Many thanks! Deby

seems like you know it is being watered too much, so repot in something less absorbant, bark mixes and the like, trim off the ead mushy roots and go from there. others will help here

[jerrymeola]

Trim the bad roots and hope for the best.

I have a lot of son's who want to buy their mother Phals for Mother's day and always tell me she will over water it to death.

For a solution I developed a potting that is almost impossible to over water.

Get a clay orchid pot, the ones with the slits in the sides. Re-pot the Phal in hydroponic rock and nothing else in the pot. Put a saucer under the pot. You want to have the roots about 1/2 to 1 inch from the bottom of the pot so the roots can not touch the water in the saucer.

Your mom could then water as much as she wants. When the water hits the floor she will stop, moms learn fast.

The hydroponic rock will then soak up water as needed. Possibly your parents will not water if they see water in the saucer, but even it they do, the plant can live with water in the saucer forever.

For those who are not sure when to water, the clay pot turns darker when it is wet and dries to its original light color tan when it needs water again. As close to no thinking orchid care as I could devise.

I usually glue the saucer to the pot so they can not be removed. Leave a little space between the pot and the saucer, although, The water will seep out a closed clay pot anyway, they are not water tight. put a coaster under the saucer so as not to leave water marks on the furniture.

[taradale]

Orchid Rescue - I love it!!

I belonged to Airedale (dog) Rescue in the past - so this may be own private joke. Where folks tend to abandoned Airedales and in some cases abscond with abused 'dales.

I have visions of Orchid lovers sneaking into houses and rescuing plants. "Oh, the horror of it all".

I also have to mention that I was at a new Home Depot the other day south of Knoxville TN and they were frying their orchids with the heating system. I mentioned it to the cashier and she said she calls the main Home Depot office in Atlanta daily to tell them because they control the heating system!! It was so sad to see all these Phals with dried up wrinkled leaves and cooked flowers. And they were still trying to sell them at a discounted rate of $15.00 dollars. There must have been 60 poor souls. Just so sad.

Kath-

[Orchid_lady]

If you ask me Home depot is probably one of the worst places to buy orchids. I too have seen some horrors from Home Depot, like this one time where some phals were tied together they were left potless with ugly looking roots. I guess they were trying to make a 2 for 1 sale lol. Same thing with Dens.