Phal roots shriveling

[jesslevy84]

I have a similar problem to the one described in the "phal help" thread from 6/24/08, but I want to provide a few more details and hopefully get some specific advice for my situation.

I have 2 phals which live on my dining room table next to a large west-ish facing window. Both are potted in their original pots and bark mixtures. I've had the first Phal for about 2 months and its not thriving as well as I'd like. I got the other one about a month ago and it looks great so far.

I water them about every 2 weeks by putting them under my kitchen sink tap and letting water run through the pots for about 5 minutes each. The water is about room temperature to keep from shocking the roots. I have no idea if this is a good method but it is my attempt to thoroughly soak them. I've tried the skewer method but it seemed like my skewers were always moist and kind of moldy. I have been using Schultz Orchid Food to fertilize about once a month. It is water soluble so I don't water around the same time that I fertilize. Is this right?

The first Phal came to me with four flowers on one stem, four buds on another stem, and six leaves. I brought it home from work and it got a little sunburned in the car but not too bad. Since then, I've lost all of the flowers and the buds bloomed for a very short period of time before dropping off. I cut both stems back to about six inches tall after losing the flowers. Then, the bottom three leaves turned yellow, shriveled to brown and fell off one right after another. That was a couple of weeks ago and the leaves seem stable now, but I've noticed some of the roots are starting to look shriveled and brown.

Sorry if this post is too lengthy but I would rather give too much information than not enough. Okay, now please tell me all of the things I'm doing wrong

[made4engineering]

Maybe you should stop fertilizing for now until you really make sure its not being fertilized too much at one time. Every two weeks doesnt seem like a lot of water, so maybe you should water once a week or so.

[mayres]

If your media is staying damp and soggy in Florida for over two weeks I'd be a little concerned. Are you certain the entire pot is filled with bark? It would not (unfortunately) be unheard of to see a phal potted in something like sphag and then have a bark top dressing. I would expect this time of year to see bark drying out and your plant to need watering at least once a week in most areas - hopefully some others that live in Florida can let you know if this is normal for your area. I'd depot your plants and confirm that the roots are in good condition and verify that the media is all the same and in good condition. Bark should not be soft and soggy. If it has broken down it should be replaced - if you do so, be sure and soak it 24-48 hours before repotting your plant. If you have any soft, mushy, black, dried out, etc. roots these should be removed/cleaned up before repotting. It is not unusual to have some of the air roots dry up when moving them from the greenhouses from where they were grown to the home environment. Eventually they will grow new aerials that are aclimated to your conditions. Good luck!

[E-Jag]

Like mayres suggests, I would de-pot both and check the roots and potting material. I have 5 phals and every one was jammed into sphagnum moss when I bought them. Get rid of the moss, at least for now. There's a learning curve with that stuff. Bark is good. Root rot can be caused by too much or too little water. I soak each one of mine for an hour or so, twice a week, but they sit on a screened, south-facing patio. At any rate, check the roots and go from there. If the roots are okay, put them back in the same pots with new bark that's been soaked for a day. They may just be going through a post purchase sulk. If roots are rotted/black/mushy, cut 'em off and repot in same pot with new pre-soaked bark. Good luck.

E-Jag

[Christina]

Hi there! Too much information is deffinitly better than too little, so no worries.
Anyway, the phal that you brought home from work that has dropped its flowers, well, it seems that it possibly could have went through a shock. This happens to some orchids (even phals, which are usually really tolerant of temp, setting, light change), you just might have a sensitive phal. Was your office setting close to the same temperature as your home setting. Chids don't particularly enjoy a sudden drop or increase in temp when in bloom. And did you increase the amount of sunlight it was getting or decrease it?

I moved two of my phals from one house to another after a couple months and they seemed to continue to bloom. One had a slight "pause" period in which it just stopped blooming. But i think once it adjusted, he got back on track. If the roots are really healthy, then the plant can be very forgiving of changes.

I think your phal will be fine. If your leaves seem to be improving but you notice a few bad roots, then maybe you should consider repotting and cutting some of the dead roots and placing it in fresh new media. You just might have to wait until next year to see the blooms come back. But who knows... they might come back stronger and more beautiful than before.

Let us know how they are doing.