Newbie looking for help, yellow leaves

[yenneffer]

Hello. I hope this is the right place to ask. I am completely new around here and also to growing orchids. I got one for my birthday at the end of January and it seems it is not doing well. I would really like to try and save it and take good care of it. I am sorry if I use wrong terms here. English is not my first language and as I mentioned, I am new at this. Thanks for understating!

When I got the orchid, it had two large stalks with flowers, four large leaves and three smaller ones. What happened is that it started loosing the smaller bottom leaves. They turn yellow and fall off. This has already happened to the two smallest leaves and third one turned yellow. Now I did try and look up some information and it seems orchids do this with the bottom leaves from time to time but I am guessing that three leaves over two weeks or so is way too much. Also, the orchid lost some flower-buds from the very ends of the stalks with flowers. It looked like they dried off.

Any idea where the problem could be? Is the container too small? Maybe it also needs some fertilizing, I am guessing the two large flowers can drain a lot of power from it. Or did it have too much watter?

I tried taking some pictures for a better idea of the situation. Now I do apologize for the quality of these photos. My phone is not taking good pictures. If you need to see better pictures please let me know and I will try to figure something out.

I will really appreciate any help. Thank you very much!

[Leafmite]

I cannot see the photos too well but I'll ask a few questions. Do the roots get nice and green when you dunk the pot in water? Are you careful not to get water on the leaves? If the roots turn green when wet, they are healthy. If you've gotten water on the leaves, sometimes this can cause problems which will lead to the loss of the leaves. And, sometimes, with the change in climate (warm, moist greenhouse-your home), you lose some leaves. You can also make certain there are no little insects. Is the phal kept warm, over 16'C? Is the phal near a bright window? You have a beautiful orchid, by the way.

[Discus]

Orchids do lose their oldest leaves with time, and this is normal and healthy - however, if they do it too much, it's a problem. As long as your orchid has several good, healthy green leaves, I wouldn't worry too much, but do check leafmite's suggestions above.

[NatalieS]

The pictures aren't very clear but the roots do look nice and green and healthy to me.

Since it says that you are from Czech, and it also looks like some of the buds were blasted, perhaps the temperature got a bit too low? I am with leafmite, I would make sure that plant is being kept warm enough.

[yenneffer]

Thank you for your help! The orchid was placed on a bright spot but not with direct sunlight. The temperature sure should be over 16C, but the orchid was nearby a window that was opened quite often so maybe that didn't help. I tried moving it to a different room where the window isn't being opened as often. The buds that fell off looked dried, do you think it was because I didn't water it enough or did cold do that?

The roots in the pot look green, some with a silvery layer. but the roots that are out in the air seem dry.

I haven't tried dunking it in water completely yet. If I do that, how long should I keep it in the water? I understand the water probably shouldn't touch the leaves if that can be a problem.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Did you take the plant out of the pot and remove all potting media to inspect the roots, or did you quickly inspect the roots based on what you could readily see through the clear plastic pot?

If you just made a quick inspection by just looking through the clear plastic pot, I recommend taking the entire plant out of the pot and carefully inspecting the roots. Of particular interest are the mass of roots that are directly underneath the plant. Sometimes what sellers will do is take an overgrown Phal that has been potted in moss, remove the plant from the pot without removing the previous potting media, (in the case of this scenario, it would be the moss), and put the plant in a larger pot and insert bark around the older roots. In other words, there may be a chance that the roots in the center may have a lot of moss concentrated there causing some root rot.

I highly recommend doing another thorough check on the roots by taking the entire plant out of the pot.

If everything is fine, then I would move to think that the leaves turned yellow due to old age.

[yenneffer]

I haven't tried taking it out of the plastic pot yet. Wouldn't that cause it another shock? I am kind of afraid of hurting it by doing too many things at once.

I forgot to mention that the plastic pot is placed in another, tall ceramic pot, where there is space below the plastic pot where I try to keep some water (its not touching the roots at all), as the lady from the flower store we bought the orchid at advised. I try to spray the roots with water to give it some humidity since air can be quite dry around here and I water it when the soil (or well, bark) is dry a few centimetres down. Is that ok?

[Paul Mc]

Personally, I'd be more concerned about the roots then the shock. If the roots aren't happy, then you will lose the plant. Same can go for shock though you can work through that and phals tend to be more hardy against shock in my short experience.

[NatalieS]

Originally Posted by yenneffer

Thank you for your help! The orchid was placed on a bright spot but not with direct sunlight. The temperature sure should be over 16C, but the orchid was nearby a window that was opened quite often so maybe that didn't help. I tried moving it to a different room where the window isn't being opened as often. The buds that fell off looked dried, do you think it was because I didn't water it enough or did cold do that?

Orchids like some air movement, but not a cold draught. I'm sure it's quite cold outside where you are at the moment so it's good that you've moved it to a room where the window isn't opened too much. Make sure the plant is not too close to the window that is being opened.

Hopefully I don't sound like I'm contradicting anyone - it is always good to check the roots!