Drowned phal in recovery

[KatieTee]

Hi there,

I'm looking for some advice on the recovery of a waterlogged Phal. It fell foul of the 'pretty pot with no drainage holes' syndrome - by the time I realised it was sitting in water it had lost most of its root system. When I did realise (about six months ago) I looked for advice on this site, and threw away the old potting medium, cut away the dead roots with a sharp knife, and re-potted in a much smaller pot. It still had a flower spike when I repotted but I subsequently cut that away 'cos the poor thing kept trying to flower. I was left with a very small amount of root (which now seems to be regrowing, very slowly) and about five leaves, of which three have just withered and dropped. That just leaves two very green healthy looking leaves... so my question is, do you reckon it's still recovering, and is there anything else I can do to nurse it back to health?

Any advice would be much appreciated. It's on a south facing windowledge currently, if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for any pointers
Katie

[1joyceh]

Hi and welcome to the forum Katie
If, after 6 months your little 'drowned' phal has '2 very healthy green leaves', and healthy roots are growing, it sounds like it is on the road to recovery! It takes time, but it sounds like she should come back for you! Great job

[Fishmom]

Welcome, KatieTee! Apparently you have visited this website before, so maybe you already have a good culture sheet for your phal, but if not, here is a link to the American Orchid Society culture sheets:
AOS Culture Sheets

If you have seen new growth of roots and still have 2 healthy leaves, you are on the right track. You should see a new leaf appearing from the center of the plant, as long as it did not have rot in there. You don't mention fertilizing, but that might give your plant a boost. I personally follow a "weekly, weakly" regime, with a rooting stimulant (either seaweed or KLN) added a couple of times a month. The liquid seaweed really does seem to promote new root growth, you might want to try it.

Also, phals like to be nice and warm! You mention that it is in a south-facing window. What are the temperatures like during the winter at that location? Does it get very cold at night? You might want to experiment with using warm water for your plant also; Ron ( a real phalaenopsis guru) suggests this. There was a recent thread on the topic: Heating cold water in the winter for orchids

If you make some general posts until you have 5, you can post a picture of the plant in question. That makes it easier to get opinions, and we love pics!

[jpyerry]

I agree with what others have said, new leaves are a good sign and your plant is on its way. Just remember that orchid recovery is a long and slow process. I now realize that I drowned my first orchid in exactly the same way that you did, it has been more than a year since then and mine has recovered enough to put out three new leaves and it rebloomed for me, but it is still not as large as when I first got. When I first got the plant it had 5 blooms, when it rebloomed I only got 2 flowers, and the newest leaf is still about 4" shorter than the original longest leaf. Patience is the key in orchid recovery!

Justin

[KatieTee]

Thankyou so much for taking the time to post, and for your advice. I *thought* we were heading in the right direction but it is slow and with the leaves just recently dropping I did wonder.

In terms of warmth, it is the middle of winter but the window is double-glazed and the room centrally heated, so it shouldn't be feeling too much of a chill, hopefully? And I haven't been feeding or fertilizing, since that caused the problem in the first place (I started over-watering when I mixed up some feeding solution into the water and got a bit over-enthusiastic with it).... but will definitely try liquid seaweed if I can find any.

Thanks again.

[orchids4me]

Hi and welcome to geeks!!
After 5 posts you can up laod pic. we'd love to see how you settled it in after and up dates of it progress. It helps us help you also if we see something that may need attention and fix it as it comes along.
Good luck with the recovery !!