Phal. Naples Night's leaves slightly limp

[arleneg]

The other day, when I touched the leaves of my Phal. Naples Night, they felt slightly limp. I've been keeping the potting medium (coir/perlite/charcoal) moist, room 75F - 82F (depends on the day's temp), and humidity in the 55% - 60% (bought an evaporative cooler earlier this week). My Naples get filtered morning sun.

I'm stumped as to why the leaves are slightly limp. Does anyone have any ideas??

[patlee]

I have about five leaves on my Naples Night and four of them are stiff and perfectly fine. One almost seems to have a broken mid-rib except that it is only in one place. The section of leaf before and after the floppy/break seems to be normal. I have no idea what is causing this as I am treating it just like all my other phals and 99.9% of the plant seems to be fine. It's just that one section of leaf and my cultural conditions sound very similar to yours.

The only thing I am going to do is pour some H202 in the pot and just keep treating it like everybody else in my phal family. Cross my fingers and hope for the best for all of us...

[arleneg]

Pat,

I'm also treating mine like the other phals I have. The leaves on my Naples Night were nice and firm until a few days ago. So...

[mayres]

Sounds like you have yours planted just like mine - except you are very fortunate to be a little bit warmer. Mine looks like the day I took it out of the box still!

[arleneg]

Mike,

Whenever I repot a moisture loving orchid, I pot it in my coir/perlite/charcoal mix.

Have you tried potting any of your Oncidium alliance ones?

[mayres]

I have yet to decide if I like my coir mix on other genera yet.
I've tried it on some miltoniopsis plants I have - AFTER they were not doing well - so can't tell if the coir had anything to do with their continuing to not do well or not - I've concluded for whatever reason that in general this is not a good genera for me.
I've actually tried it on a young catt seedling that was also struggling and it seemed to do well in it. Everyone in my orchid society uses medium bark with perlite and some also charcoal, so I'm a little afraid to stick my healthy catts in coir.
I have now put two paphs in coir that had absolutely ZERO roots and have re-rooted them and this has been exciting.
I've tried mixing it with bark with Cymbidiums and zygos - seems to work OK. Actually I've mixed it with fine bark with a few oncidiums too - not sure yet how well they are adapting to it - was hoping to use it to keep them a little wetter than usual and see if this would keep their pseudobulbs from shriveling.
Needless to say - I'm still in the learning stage. I may NEVER get out of the learning - testing phase?
Have you found it works well for your oncidiums?

[arleneg]

Mike,

I found that it works rather well with my Miltonias. Recently, I repotted a mini Oncidium (sorry...forgot the name) and won't know for another few weeks. However, I have an Onc. Rosy Sunset which I repotted several weeks ago and the new pbulbs are plump and new roots developing. Also, I have potted my (relatively new) Osmoglossom in the coir mix, too. It's doing rather well...have a new growth.

I think the trick is to let the coir mix go slightly dry before watering, but not to the point of wet...just moist...and have air movement.

[articuno75]

Arlene~ I had mine in coir and the leaves felt limp too. I checked the roots and had some bad spots. I did a repot due to this and placed the plant into different medium. My temps were about like yours, and the humidity around about the same. The coir (Aussie Mix) clumped in spots and made areas of the mix wetter than intended.

[patticake]

I potted mine in Schultz's mix with a little sphag thrown in. It's doing o.k. a tiny bit of spike(I think) is on the stem base. It gets morning sun,(dappled) and other than that, I water it a few times a week- I spray it on other days. The humidity is low here, so take that into consideration.

[arleneg]

Jenny -- What potting medium do you have yours in now?

Patti -- I have low humidity, too. However, since I bought an evaporative cooler for the orchid room earlier last week, the humidity is now a bit higher. So I decreased my watering/misting a few days ago.

I hope I'm not getting root rot.

[articuno75]

Arlene~ I have it in very small bark/perlite/charcoal with medium sized hydroton (6-9 pieces) on bottom. I just did my damage control here about 3-4 days ago. My nub/spike is still there, actually bigger and everything looks good, so far....

[myorchid]

My Naples Nights leaves are also limp. I had repotted when I got it into a fine bark mix. When I noticed the limp leaves I took it out of the pot and saw that the roots had some bad spots. I cut those off and repotted.

I was gone for a week and when I came back this weekend the Phal did not seem better. I took it out of the pot and it looked like I was getting a root, but it was so wobbly in the pot that I repotted in a smaller pot. I had gotten some worm tea, (my first) and watered it with that. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I am getting a new one from Jerry and some grapewood. I may try to mount it.

[Sharyn]

Mine was in sphag moss when received. Roots were good and I repotted into coir mix in a small 3" plastic pot with slits. These little pots seem to help the coir dry out a little quicker, which has been good for me during this cool weather.

I'm growing on a windowsill (filtered West) and occassionally under grow lights if it's gloomy. The leaves are firm but I haven't noticed any growth yet.

[PhalPal]

I would check the roots (especially since you have told me before that you like to water) and see if they are having a problem. Mounting may be the best option for you with Phals. I have mine mounted on cork bark in about 600 fc and it seems happy with firm leaves.
You might be giving it too much sun also. I don't give Phals ANY sun unless it is far back from the window. If the leaves are even slightly warm, it's too much.

[arleneg]

April -- Now I don't feel so bad about my somewhat limpy Phal leaves.

Sharyn -- I, too, potted mine in a 3" clear, slotted pot so the coir mix will dry a bit quicker.

Connie -- Actually, I don't like to water (lazy here...have to force myself...LOL). Right now, I water my 'chids in the orchid room twice a week, or when needed. My Phal is about 3 ft. away from the window (give or take a few inches), and get dappled morning sun.


I think the solution is to move and place it under lights, since it's near the edge of the table and no where else to go but under lights.

I'll post another update in a week or so.

[patlee]

What a difference a few states--well, okay, a continent can make Ohio sun is nothing like California's!! My phals are mostly on a bakers rack that sits in the middle of a bay window. They get light from all three sides and in the late afternoon they get lots of filtered light because I can angle the blinds. My Naples Night is there. It's one leaf was sort of limp. You know how those leaves stand up? Well, the middle of the leaf took a decided dip/dive, but that was before I put it with the other phals. Now it seems to have firmed up, though the leaf is still pointing downward I think it likes being with the other phals

[arleneg]

Well, my Phal. Naples Night didn't make it. It went to orchid heaven last week. Due to this, I'm out of this project.

I really like this Phal....different from the standard green leaves. Oh well.

If any of yours bloom, I'll just enjoy it thru you.

[articuno75]

I'm so sorry. Was it to root rot?