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Help - Newbie with a Phal
I got a Phal as a gift in late August. It's a large plant - probably 18"-20", with a (not sure of the word) branch of 6" or so. Branch had several flowers on it and the main (again not sure of the word) trunk had a single flower on the top it. It's potted is a larger ceramic pot in bark. Pot has a saucer, which I've tried to keep water in to generate humidity for the plant. Being a Librarian - I got on the internet looked around at several orchid sites, got some books from the Library and finally settled on buying the Taylor's book which I've found very useful and the Ortho Orchid book - mostly for the good photos of things that could go wrong. Those photos came in handy as 2 or 3 weeks after I got the plant, the flowers develops blight and with a heavy heart I pruned them. Leaving just the top flower - which held on for another month before dying. The one branch developed a bud on the end, which never fully opened before dying. After the top flower died, something seemed to start there, but quickly died. Now, the main trunk (see drawing below) is going brown on me above where branch. WHAT am I doing wrong? Per the books, it's not getting too much light. I'm only watering once per week, in the morning - with a weak fertilizer mixture. Generally, I take a old milk jug - mix a gallon of fertilizer water at once - using half one week, finishing it the next. Plant looks like. | | | It's brown from about here up. | |----------------------- | | | | Main trunk is tied to a piece of bamboo to keep it straight. The trunk has been turning brown from the top and creeping down toward the branch. Branch still appears to be healthy. Help a poor newbie, Please??? Mollie (remove nospam to reply) ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Are all Librarians this much trouble?" Rick O'Connell The Mummy Returns |
#2
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Help - Newbie with a Phal
Hi Mollie
First, you may or may not be doing anything wrong. It is hard to tell, but what you describe sounds OK, except half a gallon of dilute fertilizer sounds a bit much for only one plant. What you have called a trunk and branch is an inflorescence. The fact that it is turning brown is not an indication of a problem. Rather, the plant is telling you that it is done with it. Listen to your plant and cut it off about an inch or so from it's bottom. How do the leaves look? Are they a nice bright green, or have they wrinkled and discoloured? When you water, does the excess start flowing out the bottom of the pot immediately or do you have to wait half a minute or more from the time you begin to apply the water? I learned this trick from an old grower yesterday (old is relative: I am "mature" and he is probably only about ten years older than I - but he started growing orchids many many years ago). He says that if the water moves that slowly through your medium, then it has almost certainly decayed to produce a kind of sludge at the bottom of the pot and any roots in that sludge will certainly die. Since this is your first, and I'm guessing you haven't repotted, and it no longer has any flowers, I would recommend that you repot the plant and take a close look at the roots. If the roots that had been covered by the medium are solid and a creamy white colour, they are fine. If they are soft and the colour of decaying turnip, then they are sick and probably ought to be trimmed (if there are none that are really healthy, I'd leave them alone since sickly roots are bound to be better than none). You want to visit your nearest horticulturalist to get some bark, or coconut husk chips (CHC: I would use medium CHC); and you'll probably find it easier to find the latter (I have never found a local supplier of any kind of bark). If you use CHC, you'll want to wash it several times (i.e. soak over night in fresh water, drain, and repeat two or three times). If your humidity tends to be low, especially in the winter, you will probably want to mix som moss in with the CHC (sphagnum moss or spanish moss, depending on what you can find). Sphagnum has antifungal properties, and so can be useful in preventing infection should you find it necessary to trim the roots. You say it is in a ceramic pot. Is that pot well drained? If not, you may be killing your plant. Phals, indeed most orchids, don't want to be sitting in water (in fact, IIRC, only marsh plants will tolerate saturated soil as they all want air for their roots, but marsh plants are well adapted to saturated soil and have other mechanisms to get oxygen to the roots). It is one thing to display the plant in a ceramic pot, but I would grow the plant in a clay or plastic pot just large enough to set into the ceramic pot when I want it on display, and then easily remove when no longer on display. Clay is preferred if you water alot because it breathes, while plastic is good if your environment is dry or you don't water alot. Ceramic pots tend not to breath because of the glaze and paint (and could be used instead of plastic IF they are well drained - but good drainage is essential). If your environment is humid and you tend to water alot, then you can get "orchid pots", which are just clay pots with lots of holes or grooves cut into the side of the pot. But these tend to breath alot and dry very quickly, so you can end up killing your plant if you forget to water occassionally. You DO know enough to feel the potting medium about an inch below the surface to see if it needs watering, don't you? Good luck. HTH Ted |
#3
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Help - Newbie with a Phal
If the pot is standing in water, then you probably have a case of root rot.
I'd repot and remove any roots that are dead. If you need to generate more humidity for the plant, then get a humidifier for that area or you might want to let the pot stand on a tray of pebbles so that it drains and doesn't sit in water. ________________ Ken Woodward Newton, MA http://kwoodward.net "M. Brumbaugh" wrote in message ... I got a Phal as a gift in late August. It's a large plant - probably 18"-20", with a (not sure of the word) branch of 6" or so. Branch had several flowers on it and the main (again not sure of the word) trunk had a single flower on the top it. It's potted is a larger ceramic pot in bark. Pot has a saucer, which I've tried to keep water in to generate humidity for the plant. Being a Librarian - I got on the internet looked around at several orchid sites, got some books from the Library and finally settled on buying the Taylor's book which I've found very useful and the Ortho Orchid book - mostly for the good photos of things that could go wrong. Those photos came in handy as 2 or 3 weeks after I got the plant, the flowers develops blight and with a heavy heart I pruned them. Leaving just the top flower - which held on for another month before dying. The one branch developed a bud on the end, which never fully opened before dying. After the top flower died, something seemed to start there, but quickly died. Now, the main trunk (see drawing below) is going brown on me above where branch. WHAT am I doing wrong? Per the books, it's not getting too much light. I'm only watering once per week, in the morning - with a weak fertilizer mixture. Generally, I take a old milk jug - mix a gallon of fertilizer water at once - using half one week, finishing it the next. Plant looks like. | | | It's brown from about here up. | |----------------------- | | | | Main trunk is tied to a piece of bamboo to keep it straight. The trunk has been turning brown from the top and creeping down toward the branch. Branch still appears to be healthy. Help a poor newbie, Please??? Mollie (remove nospam to reply) ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Are all Librarians this much trouble?" Rick O'Connell The Mummy Returns |
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