Orchid damage

[Cedrada]

Hi,

I live in a student house, and recently one of my house-mates knocked my poor orchid onto the floor (believe me he has suffered for this), the most established flower stem snapped off completely (it was a clean break at a fork in the stem) and in the last few days one leaf has started turning completely black/yellow. One tiny growing shoot remains and hasn't shown any improvement/growth since the damage. My main concern is that the plant seems to be 'bleeding' in a way, clear fluid leaking from the wound. The plant was not in bloom at the time, I think it has recently begun it's new growing period.

It's grown in a plastic pot in proper orchid mix, in the bottom of the pot is some gravel so that it never sits directly in water, I will admit to not misting it and it isn't that humid for it. I'm in Sunderland, UK so it's fairly cool temperature wise.

Is it terminal? What can I do to nurse the poor thing back to health? I'm wondering if the dying leaf needs removal to save the plants energy.

Any help appreciated!

[exasperatus2002]

Can you post pics?

[Cedrada]

I'm note sure how? I read in another forum post that you can't until you have five posts anyway.

I'll get some up asap.

[made4engineering]

Probably, you need to KEEP the leaf to conserve energy. This is because the plant will suck all the remaining food and water out of it as it dies to help itself survive. Just reply to this post a few more times with some nonsense.,..

[Celcat]

Hello Cedrada and Welcome to the forum,

It would help if you tell us the kind of the orchid. I have knocked down one of my phals so many times but it always survives. Orchids are very resilient.
You should check the roots if they are healthy, you said that you have new growth. It is usually a good time to repot. I do usually repot my orchid when I knocked it down (or the wind).

Without a picture, it is hard to say. But 1 more post and you can post a pic

[jerrymeola]

Unless you break almost all the growth orchids seldom die from physical damage as opposed to bacterial or fungal infection.

The wounds are possible points of infection, but damage in the leaves as opposed to damage in the roots, usually cauterizes itself by drying in the air.

Whenever a plant is stressed go easy on the water and skip fertilizer.

[patlee]

You might want to sprinkle the wounds with cinnamon and douse with straight H202 This is cheap and very effective protection against all the nasty little fungal/bacterial infections that might get into those open wounds and infect your orchid. Give her some time and she will be fine! Good luck and let us know how she does.

Oh, BTW, to the forum. Sorry about the accident, but glad to have you aboard!!

[solay]

Welcome and sorry to hear about the mishap. Please post a pic. so you can get better advice. Hope it will recover for you.