Broken Crown with no leaves

[Armin_Grobbelaar]

Good day

I have a phal that I accidently broken the crown off. It has no more leaves on it, I just want to know if it will grow new ones?

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Armin_Grobbelaar

I have a phal that I accidently broken the crown off. It has no more leaves on it, I just want to know if it will grow new ones?

AG ------ it could possibly develop a new growth. Just got to make sure that this one doesn't get dehydrated.

Putting it in a warm spot inside a see-through container (with some holes at the top of the container lid) ------ and a bright spot but no direct sunlight ----- could possibly give it a chance.

The holes are to allow outside air-movement to be transferred somehow to inside air-movement. And the container is to keep the humidity level up ...... inside the container, so that the orchid won't dehydrate too much.

[Orchidtinkerer]

Originally Posted by Armin_Grobbelaar

Good day

I have a phal that I accidently broken the crown off. It has no more leaves on it, I just want to know if it will grow new ones?

nope, that's had it. There needs to be at least a sign of green, nothing will grow out of that anymore I'm afraid

[Armin_Grobbelaar]

Thank you SouthPark, it is already in a see through container with holes in them.

I looked at the roots again and the are hollow but not mushy. Is that over or under watering?

[SouthPark]

A.G. ------- if the roots are firm and if they change to a greeny colour when water is applied ------ then those particular roots are still in action.

One nice method ----- especially for that pot you have now with that particular media you have now ...... is to water the media (eg. using a spray wand) along the outer regions of the pot. Water into the media towards the perimeter of the pot. That can help to keep some of the media wet or very wet, and the humidity quite nice inside the pot without drowning roots.

I water in that way for various (or lots of) regular orchids, such as catts and phals.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

It looks dead. I'm not sure what happened. How long was it in that container? How were you watering? What are your temperatures? Light?

[SouthPark]

A.G. ------ in the tropics over here, to show what I mean about watering with my water-wand ------ I simply use the watering wand to dump water into the circled regions ------ seen in the attached pics.

Some other regions in the pot remain dry, and provides a nice wet-dry gradient.

Our tropical conditions here are generally quite nice as well, for supporting orchids. But sometimes the humidity can still become relatively low ....... but I have found no issues with roots or leaves when the orchids get adequate water.

The questions from E.S. are very good ones. The orchid may have arrived at this state ----- either due to not enough water (ie. too dry), or due to regular roots drowning from the roots and/or media being too watery for too long.

[SouthPark]

I also forgot to mention that ------ it's ok (and good) to spray the surface of the media and roots a little bit with water for the regions closer to the orchid (toward middle of the pot) ........ wet that region a little bit. Since there can be nutrients/elements in the media, and the roots in the media can pick it up ----- when a bit wet of course.

[Armin_Grobbelaar]

Thank you estación seca

I bought it about 3 months ago, I repotted about a week after that. I water when the medium is dry, about every 3 to 4 days. Our temperatures are in the high twenty and low thirty's(°C). The phal gets full light but not direct sunlight.

I have it potted in bark and sphagnum moss. I would prefer to plant the phal only in bark because I tend to overwater. Where I bought my phal it was planted in sphagnum moss. I saw a YouTube video that said that the roots are adapted to the medium in which they grow, that's why I planted it in the moss and bark. How would I convert from only sphagnum moss to only bark?

Thank you SouthPark for the watering metode, do you use this method for any medium? I just want to know how it works if the phal is only planted in bark? Do only the tips of the roots need to get wet, or is that were you spray the medium a little.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Armin_Grobbelaar

Thank you SouthPark for the watering metode, do you use this method for any medium? I just want to know how it works if the phal is only planted in bark? Do only the tips of the roots need to get wet, or is that were you spray the medium a little.

You are most welcome A.G.

That watering method will definitely work for other media as well - including bark. It will definitely work for bark.

Just make sure to inject enough water into the bark media around the sides ----- so that the bark becomes wet enough to keep the inside of the pot humid.

A pot that has good drainage (which generally also means enough big holes at the bottom) will be beneficial ........ combined with gentle air-movement in the growing area.

I made a video (link here) not that long ago, that shows how I do that sort of watering. Each grower waters in their own way or style. Some people (including nurseries) water orchids with sprinkler systems ------- so there really are various styles. I think the main thing is to just provide good temperatures, lighting, humidity, air-movement, and avoid drowning of roots.

Root drowning has been discussed a lot. Under certain conditions of say too cold and too wet, or even just too wet for too long ------ typical roots of orchids can run out of oxygen, which makes the root health go downhill.

I water in the way that I do ------- to minimise and/or eliminate the chance of root drowning. I just so-happen to have a limit on the number of orchids in my collection that allows me to maintain the orchids in this kind of way.