phalaenopsis discolored leaves and roots

[aemiklain]

I have a phal with 2 new leaves and lots of new roots, I had this and another phal sitting away from windows for about a year and as soon as I put them near a window they lost a couple leaves shot out tons of new roots and new leaves, just wish they didn't lose the old leave too! But this one seem to have some sort of issue, the new leaves seem slightly deformed and a little blotchy and the older of the two has something weird going on underneath. The roots also have black spots and what almost seems like bark especially the ones above the bark. Any ideas?

[Pilot]

Hmm...tough to say. I'm replying via tapatalk which doesnt allow me to see where you are living. My guess is environmental conditions are the culprit. The leaves being slightly deformed suggests to me a swing in humidity. Low humidity yields, in general, a slender leaf, and plenty of humidity gives a broader, flatter leaf. Swings of hi and lo yield for me a leaf that looks like this.

As for the discoloration under the leaf, could be mite damage. The pant in general looks too dry, which suggests spider mite situation.

The root issue is again being too dry and what looks like fertilizer salt damage.

I'd water these plant more frequently and with clean water...not fertilized. And see if the look of the dry root changes once its been well watered. I bet it will.

It seems you're doing fine by the plants but I feel humidity might be your biggest issue here.

[RosieC]

The roots don't look a problem and I have lots of mine with roots like this. I believe it is from iron deposits from the water. My water here has a high concentration of iron salts dissolved in it and I get this 'rust' type colour build up like hard water deposits. The surface roots of a lot of my phals have that 'rust' type colour on them and I've never had a problem with it.

[RosieC]

The roots in the pot look OK to me, though not brilliant. I find older roots go that way but can still have a good couple of years left in them. It's good if your orchid is also growing new roots to replace them when the old ones go (which they always will eventually) but I wouldn't start worrying at this point.

[RosieC]

The discolouring under the leaves is something I don't really know about. However I have one with the same thing and it does not seem to have been a problem the last couple of years that it's had it. It's not my healthiest Phal, but I don't think that's related to the couple of leaves with discolouration like that, I think it's down to root problems that developed when I experimented with it's growing medium