Orchid Needs Help

[mlscarbrough]

Hello everyone -

My fiancee bought me a lovely orchid in bloom about six months ago. I had it in my office window and it did very well, but we moved to a new city. The orchid has been stressed out from the move, I think. I repotted it right before I moved to an orchid pot with holes in it. I also feed it about every other time I water it with a very, very diluted orchid feed. I've been moving it around the house trying to find a good spot for it.

Since we've moved, it went out of bloom. I cut the stem off, but some of the leaves turned yellow in the center and then fell off. I try to keep it watered but I've read that overwatering is bad. I moved it to the bathroom because I was worried about the humidity. Now it only has two leaves on it but they look healthy. (It lost about four leaves.)

I'm worried that it won't recover from the move and the switching locations in the house. Does anyone have any advice?

I'm not sure what type of orchid this is. While it was blooming, it had one central tall stalk with several blooms branching off to either side that were a bright fuschia. The leaves at the bottom were broad and about 10 - 12 inches long. It looks like a Phalaenopsis, but I'm not sure.

Please help. I want this to bloom again. It was breath-taking!

[mayres]

Were the leaves that fell off the bottom leaves or the center upper-most leaves? If they were the latter then you had crown rot that takes out the center of the plant - caused by getting water on the crown of the plant that doesn't evaporate quickly enough. If this is the case you are probably in for a very long recuperation period from this issue alone - I'm not talking months but several years - another new plant might be in order?. If you are fortunate and this was the case, you will eventually have a new start come up from near the media/plant base and start another "plant" (called a keiki). The normal cycle is for the plants to loose a bottom leaf or two coinciding with a new leaf or two growing out of the top/center. These plants DO want humidity (like most all orchids) and good filtered light - east windows or filtered if from other directions. North light usually isn't sufficient long term to get bloom. They typically bloom one cycle per year - they are forced by commercial growers to bloom pretty much any time of year, but their natural cycle (most) will be to start spiking in the fall or early winter and bloom in later winter or spring - usually for at least 3 months or so. The rest of the year we enjoy looking at the leaves, roots, etc. :-) Hope this helps.

[mlscarbrough]

The leaves that fell off were at the bottom, so maybe it's OK - but I haven't noticed any new leaves that are starting to grow.

I guess I should just keep doing what I'm doing, watering it when the soil is dry at the top, and putting it near an East window?

I know they don't bloom all the time but I was just worried because of the leaf that fell off. I thought I had let it get too dry - sometimes our upstairs where the orchid is gets hot.

Thanks so much for your reply.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

If the top most leaves are still good and the leaves were lost at the bottom, it is probably due to the transplant. Even if you don't break roots, the new mix is not in as close contact with the existing roots and does not wet as easily as the old mix, and the plant may just be upset at the change in things. If this is so, the plant will grown new leaves to replace those lost, and new roots to snake around the new mix and attach a little to the new mix making an 'established' plant. In the mean time, make sure that when you water, you do a very good job of it. Take it to the sink and run loads of water thru the pot to be sure that ALL of the mix is soak as much as can be. Fertilizing can be done by dumping a cup full of solution into the pot after this soaking. This will help the existing roots get the moisture they need, then don't water again until your are sure the mix is almost dry down inside the pot. Concentrate on growing the plant to a large size again, and don't worry about blooms for this year. Most likely the plant does not have enough leaf area now to bloom this winter, the season for Phals, but it may surprise us if new leaves grow quickly. Cynthia

[mlscarbrough]

Cynthia, I was hoping you'd reply. :-) I've read several of your other posts this morning searching for information. This was very useful. Thank you so much. This forum is great!