Ouch! Sunburn on phals.

[Mercedes]

I have a couple of phals that I had previously repotted after they had wilted and looked a bit sickly (rotted roots, one from overwatering before I got it at home depot, one from sphag around the roots). I patiently waited and was rewarded with new growth, new roots and a new leaf growth on one (the tiny leaf wasn't growing from the center, but out from the base of the plant), and two new leaves on the other. Their older leaves still looked a bit wrinkled and floppy. While rearranging some plants I left them both too close to the window for one day (southwestern facing) and they got burnt! Now I'm worried I may have sabotaged that lovely new growth. What do I do now?

I've moved both plants into a different room with diffused sunlight, south facing window with mini-blinds that filter the light, but bright over-all. The kind of lighting that only needs lamps on after dark, otherwise it's well lit through the day, not shady or dim.

What else should I do, or should I do nothing?

[Mercedes]

I meant to add pics, here is the one with a tiny new growth, and it's larger burnt leaf, and the one with two new leaves:

[MariahK]

Ouch, I hope you have better luck then I did. One of my phals got burned and the leafs turned bright red one after the other and it killed the plant. I was awful.

[11Orchid126]

Whatever you do, don't cut those leaves off as the plant needs them, even though costmetically they don't look pretty.

[Mercedes]

Originally Posted by 11Orchid126

Whatever you do, don't cut those leaves off as the plant needs them, even though costmetically they don't look pretty.

No, the only time I ever remove leaves is when I know they're totally dead, yellowed and dry.

Right now I'm afraid to do too much of anything, so I've pretty much leaving them alone other than checking to see if they need water.

[robb]

the new leaves look very nice, make sure you don't overcompensate the light levels. it should recover nicely but remember with orchids it could take a few years to recover the damage.

[MSPProductions]

I rescued two phals about 4 months ago and one looks very similar to your issue. The problem was that they had almost no light and were being watered, with an icecube, once a day.

I cut the leaves from where they were damaged and left one alone.
They spent a month in my general area and then went to my phal window. Both had next to no roots and are now growing leaves and roots.

The one I didn't cut I think is kind of starting over and sprouted a new growth as well.

[robb]

MSP: your second picture defies all my experiences with phals, what have you got going on there?? it looks to be a phal with 2 crowns, though i have never heard of such a thing! maybe some one with more knowledge than i can comment.

[NancyG]

I had a plant that looked similiar. It turned out it was two different plants. I bought original from Home Depot. After a year it looked like above and one bloomed pink (the original) and the other blooming right now is lime green and fragrant. Maybe the same thing happened.

NancyG

[Aleksa]

That happened also to me. That is keiki... Mine have 3 large leaves but no roots yet!