Is my phal dying?

[OrchidAddict]

Hey there! I have a box-store "mini" phal (although I expect it will get bigger) that's in some serious trouble. I have no idea what's wrong with it. The leaves suddenly began to yellow from the bottom up, and I'm completely baffled as to why. And it happened REALLY fast. Just a week or two ago, the plant was doing this:



It was totally healthy when I took that pic of the flowers.

It looked GORGEOUS. Then the flowers sort of abruptly fell off and the spikes turned yellow (it lost some buds that hadn't yet opened), and now the leaves are turning yellow at an alarming pace.



They seem to be yellowing from the bottom up, and from the inside outward. You can see in this next picture that the yellowing has begun to affect one of the top two leaves.



I took it out of its tiny pot filled with sphag to check out the root system, and the roots look very healthy. I couldn't get it back into its teensy "mini" pot, so I repotted it in a larger pot with the standard mix that I use for phals.

I just repotted it last night, so I KNOW the damage didn't come from repotting.

I have not fertilized it or given it any type of hormonal supplements like SuperThrive. Basically, after bringing it home, I set it out in a place where it would get a little less light than my big phals. I haven't moved it since it came home. There's nothing that has abruptly changed that I could logically blame as a cause for this.... and to be honest, none of my phals have EVER done this before, so I'm sort of baffled.

Again, the roots are fine, so I don't think that's the problem.

Does anyone want to take a guess at what's going on here and what I can do to save this little guy? I really love this charming little phal!!

[tucker85]

I've had a few phals react badly to the change in environment when I brought them home. I've seen some do exactly what yours is doing. Usually they eventually recover and start growing again. A couple of mine took almost a year to start growing again but most of them recover more quickly. One thing to be careful of, this time of year, is water temperature. Even though the orchids are indoors the water from your faucet might be freezing cold. Let the water warm up to room temperature before using it on your phals.. Good luck.

[eircsmith]

The spike of your orchids has turned yellow or brown; which indicates that no new buds will form there. After removing the old flowering spike, your orchid should be able to get more energy back into leaves and roots. Your orchid can re-bloom, if you can provide the correct environment.