soft leaves

[Wintaker99]

My orchid Phal. has green leaves. However, i recently found out that the leaves were soft. What does this indicate?

[mayres]

By soft if you mean limp, you probably have a root rot problem - Nine times out of 10 the problem you describe is caused by overwatering. Pull the plant out of its pot and check the root condition. If you find soggy mushy roots you will need to prune away all such material and repot in fresh media and see if you can bring it back. Depending upon how far gone it might be, it may or may not be worth it depending upon how precious the plant is to you. After examining the roots repost and see what other feedback you get.

[Ellen]

Limp leaves just means the plant isn't getting enough water. As a chronic underwaterer (not by choice, it's just that I have so many #$@* plants), I have experienced this when I let the phals go way too long between waterings. It's always the new leaf that gets limp and when it's watered it perks right back up again. So the diagnosis is up to you - have you been watering the plant too much or too little? If too much, back off, repot, and hope for new root growth. If too little, just up the watering a bit. I find that in summer the plants always need more water than I think they do.