HELP!!!! Phal leaves and spike seem to be filled with water. HELP!!!!
 

I have a big phal i bought at a nursery store. It was big and happy...

last week one of the leaves was filled with water wnd squishy to the touch. It fell off... Now the spike feels the same. when touched its feels squishy to the touch. Also lost a couple of more leaves...

HELP!

What is going on and how do you stop it?

Too much water.

That's probably not as helpful as it could be. It sounds to me like the plant has been allowed to sit in standing water for an extended period, or is being watered daily. Neither of which, are good for phals. They don't need anywhere near as much water as most people give them.

Stop watering it. For at least 10 days. Let it dry out completely.

That's where I would start. Post some pics if you can, so we can see what else might be going on.

HELP!!!! Phal leaves and spike seem to be filled with water. HELP!!!!
 

Just to add what RandomGemini stated. Phals drop their leaves when their roots get too much water and it develops crown rot. Crown rot develops when water isn't drained and the plant sits too wet in cold temperatures. Hopefully the water is drained now. Let it dry out, Give it lots of moving air so that moving air drys it faster, and let it get some warmth.

Thanks for the reply.
I has only been watered once a week or less... we soak it for about 10 mins and then let it dry out for at least a week or longer.

I will post a pic as soon as u figure out how to. ..

You might need to have more posts before the forum allows you to post pictures. Go look around at some pics of orchids posted here and compliment people on the ones you like, then come back here and post pics.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?p...62260711845077

---------- Post added at 02:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:38 PM ----------

wont let me post s pic.

The forum software won't allow you to post pictures or links until you have at least five posts.

Is there any chance that your orchid was exposed to low temperatures?

no to the low temps. its been fairly warm here. temps have been in the high 70s to 80s.

Did you get water on the leaves? What type of lighting did your orchid get with those temperatures?

Light comes from a window. Not direct sun, but fairly bright sun, cast a distinctive shadow.

My girlfriend said she got some water on the plant, right in the center, when she watered it last... could that have been bad for it somehow?

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What type of media is your Phal growing in?

Phals actually grow what we would consider upside down in their natural habitat. So the water does not actually sit in the crown it runs out. So it is best to try as hard as you can to not get water in the crown it sits in there and cause what is called crown rot. If I do get it in there I GENTLY use a q tip or 2 and dab it out as best I can. Accidents do happen we just have to be careful and fix them.

I think you should be able to post pictures now after posting 5 times.

It is in sphagnum.

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---------- Post added at 06:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:43 PM ----------

http://imageshack.com/a/img836/6946/ft7o.jpg

Here is what the last leaf looked like.

I cut the spikes off and I am taking all the old media of and repotting it in a terra-cotta pot with fresh sphagnum.

Now that makes sense, I think your sphagnum moss is very wet. So your plant is overwatered. Dunking root zone works good if media is bark mix, it drains fast..with sphagnum, it will absorb more, stay wet more, and you said some water also got into the crown..all the more too wet.

You may want to consider changing your media to bark mix. It will also help your plant dry out from being too overwatered.

And run your ceiling fan right after watering, to help with air circulation too.

Soft, watery leaves is bacterial soft rot (such as Erwinia). Rot spreading into the stem does not sound good.

When you can post pictures, that would help in assessing if the plant can be saved or not.

Orchid Whisperer, how do you treat soft rot?

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The Whisperer is correct. You have a bacterial infection and it is highly contagious to other plants. I don't know if the infection can be stopped but you can try either a 1 part bleach to 10 parts water or Physan poured into the crown.

I lost a gigantea to this scourge. The first leaf to get the soft wet spot I removed and treated with Physan. A few months later I had another spot appear, removed the leaf, used the bleach water, and then several months later, it appeared again and I had to throw it out.

The gigantea was mounted and watered daily. The spots always appeared from one day to the next. This is a VERY fast moving bacteria. Also my spots were never in the crown, it was always a couple of inches away. Good luck with it.

Brooke

Sorry, I did not see this picture when I posted. Bacterial rot in the leaf where it joins the stem is a bad sign. A picture of what remains of the plant is what is needed. If there is anything left to treat, try what Brooke suggested. Any tissue that shows signs of this bacterial rot need to be cut out immediately, with the cut through healthy tissue in a wide margin around the rot.

If this has progressed into the leaf bases (close to the stem) on the other leaves, time to throw out this plant and maybe try again with a new one. Before your next orchid purchase, there is a lot of good advice in this thread: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ends-here.html With a new plant, best treatment is actually prevention; re-pot into well-drained medium, don't over-water, keep water out of the crown of the plant.

What it's planted in isn't really relevant to how much water its getting. I've seen people overwater phals in bark too. Bark doesn't help if the plant is being loved to death. It doesn't sound to me like the plant was actively being overwatered here though. I suspect that getting water into the crown and not removing it right away is what caused the issue.

Phals can't tolerate water standing on the surface of their leaves. I think it must break down the leaf tissue quickly because they are very susceptible to erwinia, which this definitely is, and this bacterial disease can kill a plant in two or three days if the infected portions are not removed as soon as they are found.

It's okay to lose one. We all kill orchids. This is how we learn how not to kill them. I think this one is probably a lost cause, so take your girlfriend and why don't each of you pick out a new orchid, one for each of you to care for. I love that you two are sharing a hobby, it's great for relationships and it's great for your plants too. :)

Very sorry to hear about your orchid. I did manage to save a Cattleya orchid with 'brown rot' by cutting off the infected part and then dousing everything but the roots in Isopropyl alcohol twice a day for a few days. However, if this is a phal from a big box store, it might be easiest to just go and find another that looks the same and start over. If you get water on the leaves in the future, either run a fan on the orchid or drip a little isopropyl alcohol into the center to dry up the water.

Thanks for this tip Leafmite. I understand how this would help speed drying but it might also help flush out any varmints that grow into that hard to reach area at the center of the plant between leaf and stem.

Thanks for the advice all. There are still 3 healthy looking leaves left. I'm going to try and save it. I will post a pic later today of the plant as it sits.

I'm going to douse it with isopropyl alcohol and repot it in a terra-cotta pot with fresh medium... I will isolate it from the rest of my collection. ..
Again, thank you all for the advice, I will keep you posted on the progress.

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I may add that cinnamon powder other the parts that should dry up will do good (but not on the roots, never).

An alternate treatment would be hydrogen peroxyde 3%, pour in after cleaning the rot, until there's no bubbles, if there's some. What is left is water and a sterilized zone. Now it leaves water which is not necessarily the best thing here, even if it's clean.

So here is a picture of the plant as it sits... looks like we are going to lose another leaf... hope I can save whats left...http://imageshack.com/a/img845/8501/io28.jpg[COLOR="Silver"]

I think hope now is in a basal keiki. The top is seriously compromised.

Nevermind if it dies on you, it happens, and you'll have learned a few things along the way. (Even experienced grower do kill plants, don't sweat it)

The yellowing leaf bases gives me some concern. I hope I am wrong, but this may indicate that bacteria has also moved into the leaves that are yellowing.

Just in case, keep this plant isolated away from all other plants. Keep it very dry for a while (meaning, don't water at all for a couple weeks), see what happens with those yellowing leaves. If the leaves deteriorate and fall off, then discard the plant - bacteria has likely entered any tissue that could possibly generate more growth.

If the leaves hang on, and stay green, water the roots only, maybe every week to two weeks. DO NOT mist or spray the leaves (all of my Phals hate this anyway - they usually respond to having wet leaves by rotting and dying). As Lepetitmartien suggested, the hope is that the plant will sprout from the base (this is called a basal keiki). This could take many months.

I know one grower on another forum that tried to get a crown rotted plant to make a basal keiki for about a year, with no success. She eventually set it to one side so she would not have to look at it every day, neglecting it, to die a quiet death on its own. The leaves withered, but after a month with no water, she checked the plant to see if she should finally throw it out - and it had a basal keiki growing. So, if you are willing, where there is still green, there is still hope.

The issue is in the crown/collar, so ALL leaves are to die. The only hope is part of the collar survives and a sleeping bud start a basal keiki.

Yellow at the leaf base means the issue is here, not the other way around. And on a phal, it's sad news.

HELP!!!! Phal leaves and spike seem to be filled with water. HELP!!!!
 

Your picture shows an unfortunate demise of your plant. This looks exactly like many of the Phalaenopsis I have killed over the years. Actually it has been a while since I've killed a Phalaenopsis due to crown rot. While lepetitmartien holds out hope that a keiki might be produced by the plant, it would take several seasons before that keiki is large enough to produce blooms. If your plant holds sentimental value, then I would carry on--as suggested by Orchidwhisperer. Or you can find a similar plant. Phalaenopsis are easy to find.

In one of your post you indicated that you soaked your plant for ten minutes and then allowed it to dry for a week or so. That is how i sort of water sphagnum moss planted orchids. I water my plants under the sink in luke warm water. Once the moss is completely saturated, I upturn the entire plant and gently shake off any excess water in the crown. I allow the plant to continue to drain before returning it to its grow space. I have many Phalenopsis--so I run an oscillating fan to help speed dryness. If you have one or two plants, ensure your plants have good circulating fresh air. You want to water early in the day so that come nightfall your plant is moist around the roots but not the plant.

Guys, the reason that most Phals are so "susceptible to crown rot" is because, not only are they being over watered, but many of them are not positioned correctly in artificial cultivation.

In cultivation, most sellers grow all of them upright. Many of them don't grow like that in the wild.

If you want to grow a Phal the right way, find out how it grows in the wild. Most Phals grow horizontally off of trees or pendulously off of trees. Their leaf tips usually point towards the ground. In a large proportion of Phals, the crowns are often pointing down as well. This design was meant for water to dribble off the leaves, away from the crown, to prevent crown rot when it rains.

Along with reducing the amount of water given to the Phal, if you lean a Phal that does not contain genetic material from Phal pulcherrima, against one side of the pot, so that the plant is pointing to the side, and the leaves are pointing down to the ground, crown rot can be practically eliminated completely without any kind of chemicals whatsoever.

Just because I am curious, why could you not do this with Phal. pulcherrima's descendants?

I agree, all of this is true, no argument from me. I still grow my phals upright, but am careful to keep the leaves dry when I water them.

Because Phalaenopsis pulcherrima is one of the few, (if not, currently, the only Phal that actually does grow upright in nature).

Phalaenopsis pulcherrima is not really an epiphyte, it is a lithophyte.

---------- Post added at 10:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 PM ----------

I don't really know what kind of rocks they grow on, but they grow on rocks with leaf litter on top. Sometimes they are found alone on rock outcrops or near the bases of trees. They do not grow on the tree itself.

Want evidence?

Here it is:

A garden's chronicle: A lithophytic orchid

I'm leaning on the idea that those are a type of limestone rock.

Cool!! Thanks for the info!

There are other Phals with the upright growth habit besides the pulcherrima. Phal cornu-cervi and its closely related species grow this way. They never lean down. The species fasciata also grows upright.

Some Phal species such as schilleriana and stuartiana leaves hang down but the crown area actually grows in a more upright manner with the leaves "kind of" extending downward.

Brooke