Help!!

[arra]

My mom just recently bought me a white orchid, but for the last couple of days i've been noticing that the flowers are falling and the stem is turning yellow. I've never had an orchid of my own and i'm concerned that it might be dying. I'm new to this website as well, i attached a picture of my plant at the bottom! thank you!!

[bearded orchid]

Hello arra, welcome to the forums! It's good to have you here.

It looks like your orchid is a Phalaenopsis type.

Here's a culture sheet on how to take care of your new orchid:
AOS Phalaenopsis Culture Sheet

I would say the plant is fine and that the blooms have just reached their time to expire. It could also be caused from the transportation of the plant from store to car to house. Difference in temperature and humidity can cause buds and flowers to wilt and die (called "blasting") The plant itself should be fine.

I would just clip the spike off with a pair of sterile shears an inch above where it grows from the base and let your new orchid get adjusted to its new surroundings. Also, does the container it's in have proper drainage? Additionally, what kind of medium is it potted in? As the flowers have finished blooming, it would be a good time to unpot the plant to inspect its roots (trimming off any bad roots) and re-pot it in some fresh medium.

Sorry if this is a little overwhelming, you do have a lovely little plant there

[pikkumyy]

welcome to the forum arra, be sure to continue to contribute to the forum, it will be great to have you,

concerning your orchid, i agree with bearded, and the link he has given you is a good one, if your after more info then just google "Phalaenopsis culture" and some good pages should come up

good luck

[arra]

Hello, thank you for taking the time to help me out!

The plant is still on its plastic container that has a couple drainage holes but the pot that it is in does not have any drainage. i have bought a pot with drainage recently, but just wanted to make sure i got the proper soil and it was the right size. Any suggestions on the soil and pot size i should use? I also live in a house were the AC is in full effect during the day (since it's summer) could that also be a problem?

Once again thank you for all your help

[arra]

thank you pikkumy

i agree! and i'll be sure to check google out as well =)

[bearded orchid]

Concerning mediums, Phals are pretty flexible. You could use an orchid bark mix, coconut husk chips, sphagum moss, etc. Repotme.com is a great place to go for anything related to repotting orchids. I use them exclusively anymore as their product quality is top notch as is their customer service and support. Here is a link to their site:rePotme Orchid Supplies - Orchid Mix - Orchid Pots - Orchid Care - Orchid Fertilizer

Regarding your home's air conditioning, your plant should be fine as long as it's kept away from drafts. It usually gets pretty dry inside with AC so you may want to mist the leaves in the mornings with water and place the plant atop a humidity tray with some water to help increase the humidity around the plant's growing area.

Pot size would depend on how large the root ball is on your orchid once you remove it from the current pot. If it is crowding the current pot then you could up the pot size one. Otherwise, it can remain in the same size pot, just with some fresh medium

[1joyceh]

Hi arra and welcome!
Good luck with your orchid, just check out the sites that bearded orchid gave you, and you will find all sorts of info, solutions to the problem

[ARodney]

Hi and welcome. On the bearded mentioned, you can also see a video on how to repot a phal. You can also do a YouTube search on repotting phals. Just don't get discouraged.

Welcome and hello! You already had sound advice from the others...I see that you have a healthy specimen. You can remove the plastic container from the ceramic pot when watering it, let the water drain out before putting it back on the ceramic and the crown is dry by dabbing it with tissue paper...good growing!

[arra]

thanks everyone! i've tried following directions, lets hope to see some improvement. wish me luck =)