Crown & Leaf Rot....

[SwTLaDYy16]

Sad day today.....I found that one of my phals has leaf and I believe crown rot. I cut off the damaged part of the leaves already....this leaves the plant with two healthy partial leaves (well semi-healthy....I cut off part of these leaves due to rot as well). My boyfriend will be spraying them with fungicide today...as well as the rest of my other orchids. I've already separated this phal from the rest of my collection. See I don't know if it's crown rot...but it seems like it....because the middle part of the top leaf is black and that leaf is just hanging....But then again, it doesn't seem as if the rot went through to the bottom of the plant. I"ve still got buds on the spike that are unopened and some of them are just opening now. Do you guys think it'll survive? I'll try and post a picture later when I get home...or I may ask my boyfriend to post it up here. I'm just sad because if this phal dies, this will be my first dead orchid since the first time I've started seriously collecting. I've saved one of my orchids from rot before....just sad that this one is kicking my butt....

[gerneveyn]

I'm sorry to hear that and hope your plant recovers. Maybe you should cut the spike so it's energy goes into recovery.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Picture yet?

[SwTLaDYy16]

Sorry...no picture yet....didn't have time to take a picture of it last night and yet again I am at work. But the phal was worse off than I thought. It only has one partial leaf left. We had to carefully scrape off the fungus from the crown of the plant and spray with fungicide. I've secluded it in my bathroom where there isn't as much light so that it can rest. I've also cut the spike so that it'll use up whatever energy is left into growing new leaves or at least recovering from the rot.....I promise I'll try to get a picture of it in a little bit.

[latsyrc]

Don't give up on your orchid! I had one with crown rot that ended up killing all the leaves. If your plant still has a good root system, just leave it for a few months in dimmer light than usual, and water it every so often. There might be a dormant node that will grow again--mine's got three cute leaves now. It will take a while, but if you really like your orchid, it's worth it!

[SwTLaDYy16]

Originally Posted by latsyrc

Don't give up on your orchid! I had one with crown rot that ended up killing all the leaves. If your plant still has a good root system, just leave it for a few months in dimmer light than usual, and water it every so often. There might be a dormant node that will grow again--mine's got three cute leaves now. It will take a while, but if you really like your orchid, it's worth it!

Thank you for this post...it gives me hope...hopefully mine will live as well...I really love the flowers. It's a large white flower with a blush pink center and a darker pink lip.

[SwTLaDYy16]

Here are a couple pictures of it with now only a parcial leaf...=(

[arleneg]

Rena,

I was just browsing www.physan.com and am planning on buying Physan 20. If you don't have it, maybe think about buying some. I've heard (from experienced orchid growers/hobbyist) that this stuff works.

Anyway, there's info on treating crown rot. Go to the website and click on Orchid Instructions on the left navigational bar.

[SwTLaDYy16]

Thanks Arelene, I'll go ahead and get this stuff.

Originally Posted by arleneg

Rena,

I was just browsing www.physan.com and am planning on buying Physan 20. If you don't have it, maybe think about buying some. I've heard (from experienced orchid growers/hobbyist) that this stuff works.

Anyway, there's info on treating crown rot. Go to the website and click on Orchid Instructions on the left navigational bar.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

It looks to me that the rot may have stopped, no wetness around the center of the plant. My recommendation is to remove the spike, that plant can't support itself, much less a spike. If you are losing leaves to a color loss, not a wet rot, I would look to mites, water quality, or roots loss.

[SwTLaDYy16]

Originally Posted by Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

It looks to me that the rot may have stopped, no wetness around the center of the plant. My recommendation is to remove the spike, that plant can't support itself, much less a spike. If you are losing leaves to a color loss, not a wet rot, I would look to mites, water quality, or roots loss.

Thanks, Cynthia. The spike is cut now. I've moved it to the bathroom where there is less light. As far as losing the leaves....the ones that I've cut off were rotted. No mites and no root loss. The tip of that partial leaf was actually rotting, so I cut that part off which left it with that partial leaf. I've been spraying it with fungicide for two days now....the label said to spray for 7 days straight to keep the rot from coming back. I'll give you guys updates on the phal as time goes on.

Thanks all for the support!

[Maddy]

The same thing just happened with one of my phals - odd, because I know I didn't get it wet where I shouldn't have. I don't know what I did.

The roots look okay, so I'm just going to hope for the best. It had just stopped blooming, then all at once the leaves started drooping and dropped off.

[Ellen]

Were the plants exposed to very low temperatures? Phals that have been lightly frozen will lose leaves over a period of a couple of weeks, with the damaged leaf starting to become soft and black at the base, then dropping off. It's one of the hazards of getting plants shipped this time of year.

[SwTLaDYy16]

Originally Posted by Ellen

Were the plants exposed to very low temperatures? Phals that have been lightly frozen will lose leaves over a period of a couple of weeks, with the damaged leaf starting to become soft and black at the base, then dropping off. It's one of the hazards of getting plants shipped this time of year.

My phals stay indoors where the temp is always constant around 60 degrees. I think I just chose an unhealthy plant. It was cheap so I decided to buy it....but it wasn't at the best condition. When I bought it the leaves were cold and soft and the whole plant itself looked sickly. It just got worse when I brought it home. One of the leaves on it already had a little brownish/black soft spot on it when I bought it. I guess I figured I could save it.

[Ellen]

Could be that it got too cold in transit and whoever was selling it didn't even know (or care) that it was on its deathbed.