Yellowing/Dente areas of lower Leaves, help!

[Philopublius91]

Hi,

I have 3 Phals that whose lowest leaves have started shriveling, the affected part of the leaves look yellow and almost as if dented in several places). I have attached a picture for reference. I’m fairly new to growing orchids, so any help would be appreciated. I’ve found a few possible reasons but none match up exactly.

[estación seca]

That's often how they dry up and fall off. I can't see the whole plant. A healthy Phal hybrid growing in most homes will generally have 4-6 leaves. If the root system isn't too good, or if it doesn't get enough water, they drop leaves until the roots are in balance with the leaves.

If your plant is otherwise healthy, it might just be an old leaf dropping off.

There is an excellent thread here on Orchid Board for beginners to learn how to grow Phals. Go to Forums in the left yellow menu, then click on Beginners. At the top are sticky threads. Look for The Phal Abuse Stops Here.

[Philopublius91]

Thank you very much! I’ll definitely check out the forum. The rest of the plant is very healthy. It has about 6 pairs of leaves. Is that normal or excessive?

Thanks!

[Ray]

It's fine. There is no such thing as too many leaves or too many roots.

Speaking of roots, that sphagnum looks pretty dense, and as orchids do much of their respiratory gas exchange through their roots (unlike terrestrial plants that do so through leaves), it is important that they always have decent air flow to them. I suspect that if you water that in a pretty standard way, you are at risk of suffocating the roots. You might want to consider checking them and repotting into a fresh, more "open" medium.

[estación seca]

On my desktop it looks like a layer of sphagnum moss over bark, but I'm not sure. If the plant is in packed sphagnum moss, I would echo what Ray said. And if it hasn't been repotted in more than 2-3 years I would repot this spring when it warms up. If you bought your plants in flower at a market, they had probably been in those pots at least 2 years, and are due for repotting.

But, if you've been successfully growing it in sphagnum for months or years, you shouldn't change what is working.