Sudden droopiness?

[charlesf6]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Ask your wife first.

lol:

[flowerchild29]

I changed the links for the pictures the moment that I realized they hadn't posted. That's probably why they showed up suddenly. I used a completely random site to upload the photos. I didn't see any ads about Russian brides, but what an odd marketing tactic.

So, if underwatering is the issue, what should I do? Should I water the orchid again tomorrow? Thanks for all of your help/insight, everyone!

[estación seca]

Get a wooden skewer and check. If it's dry it's time to water.

[Dollythehun]

How did the conversation get there?

Get on a regular watering cycle. You can judge also by the weight of the freshly watered pot. When it's light weight water again. To you need to water more and if it's never been repotted, it might be time.

[Ray]

With that coarse bark, pouring water through it does very little to favor retention.

Put the plant in the sink, and fill it to the point of almost reaching the lip of the pot. Let the bark soak for about 30 minutes, then let out the water so the pot drains. That will allow the chips to absorb enough water to stay moist for an extended time period.

If your concern is "the need to dry out", forget it, as that's BS, especially for a phalaenopsis. Orchids do not need to dry out between waterings, but their roots do need to have constant air flow, or they will suffocate. If your potting medium is too compact, whether due to being too fine or two old and decomposed, then it is the medium that needs to dry out, so it won't trap water between the particles and suffocate the roots. If that's the case (it doesn't appear so), it's time to replace the potting medium, not starve the plant of water.

[Optimist]

My thought is that puffing up the leaves of a phal is not like filling a water balloon. The leaves of a phal are storage organs for glucose made through photosynthesis. The manufacture of food through photosynthesis is caused by a combination of sunlight (or required light spectrums) and water. So the answers seem to be all about water, but the answer could also lie in sunlight. Have you moved the plant, has the angle of sun changed? Has your daylight photoperiod shortned? It may be that you might need to extend your lighting time using an artificial light or something.

The foot candles (fc) light intensityof an average house interior is only about 500 fc or less while a phal needs about 1,500 fc for 8 hours per day. If the phal is far into the room, away from the window, it is good enough for summer but not great for winter.

[camille1585]

I've had Phals get more dehydrated than that (it was hot when I was on vacation 3 weeks last summer). The leaves were very very wrinkled and completely droopy. The first couple times I watered those Phals after getting back, I did as Ray suggests, and stuck them in a bucket with the water almost level with the top of the pot. It took about 2 months for the leaves to go completely back to normal, though even now some of them don't feel as firm as they were before the drought.

[flowerchild29]

Thanks everyone for the replies! I will buy a wooden skewer the moment I get the chance to.

To give some additional information -- this orchid was/is my first orchid. I've had it for 2 years, and it has remained in the same windowsill the entire time I've had it. It is in a south facing window. It never seems starved of light. The skies have been sporadically cloudy for the past few weeks due to the weather, but this orchid dealt with that last year, too. It grows new things constantly, blooms 1-2 times a year, and it lost its first (eldest) leaf a few weeks before the droopiness started.

I used to mist and deeply water this orchid OFTEN. I'm talking, I used to mist the medium every other day. I would deeply water twice a week. I quit doing that months ago because I lost my second orchid to root rot. :,( I felt like it was my fault, but my second orchid was already a sick orchid when I bought it. It had been pumped full of blue dye to the point that the plant would leak it.

Anyway, I repotted this orchid a few months ago.
Note: I didn't actually switch pots. I just changed the old medium out with new medium. During repotting, I was startled to see a numerous amount of dead roots limply attached to this orchid. It looks so healthy on the outside. 1/4 of the roots were green, 1/4 were discolored (due to lack of sunlight reaching them), 1/4 looked dead yet were growing new roots from them, and the other 1/4 were totally dead. The dead roots worried me. I cut off the "for sure" dead ones, applied cinnamon, and I repotted. Also, to prevent root rot, I started watering on a new Monday AND Friday schedule.

I've always kept up with my Monday and Friday watering schedule. I just didn't keep up with the days that I watered for the past 2 weeks only. I know that my plants were watered at least once for each of those 2 weeks. This orchid wasn't deprived of water for more than a week, and its leaves appeared fine until a couple of nights ago.

When I realized that this orchid had drooping leaves, I immediately thought it had to be dehydration. I ran water through the pot for a minute. I let the water drain out before placing the pot back onto its water-catching tray. My orchid's leaves are still limp and the lower leaves seems like they are starting to slowly wrinkle. I might be convincing myself about the wrinkling thing, though.

I understand now that Phal's can be watered more often than other orchids. I also read about humidity trays. Should I soak the orchid now? How long before the leaves will become erect again?

For future waterings, how should I go about watering this orchid? Should I soak it once a week every week? Should I soak it and then leave it near (though not under) a fan to dry the medium to prevent root rot?

Thanks again to everyone!

[Ray]

1) Never apply cinnamon powder to the roots. It is a tremendous desiccant, so will dry up any new growth tips attempting to emerge. Maybe dabbing a cut end is OK, but I don't even bother.

2) Water DOES NOT cause root rot! If it did, the plants living in tropical rainforests, where they can stay wet for months and months at a time, would all be extinct!

Healthy roots don't rot. Roots that are sick or dead do. That is usually caused by suffocation, as I said earlier.

Where water comes into that - and where the mistaken notion that "water causes root rot" originates - has to do with the water-holding capacity of the medium, and interstitial liquid.

When we water, most just pours right through. Some is absorbed immediately by the plant and medium, and some is held in-between the particles by surface tension. That last thing only happens if the medium is too fine; in coarser media, the gaps are just too big for the water to bridge.


If the water cannot totally bridge all of the spaces, there is airflow to the roots, whether wet or dry, so they "breathe" freely, remain unstressed, and don't rot.

Dread my last post, and follow my recommendation on treating the bark.

[flowerchild29]

Okay! Thank you very much. I will start watering by soaking the bark and I'll start using the skewer test to determine when to water. Also, I only apply cinnamon to the cut location. I get a drop of water on my fingertip, pick up some cinnamon with the wet fingertip, and I apply the cinnamon directly to the hurt/damaged/cut part. Everyone has been so helpful and I am very grateful!