Help! What is wrong with my plants?

[Pete]

also-sphagnum will not cause root rot, yes with the bark mix it dries out faster so you have to water more often, allowing you to pump the plant up and grow it faster-if you can stay on the watering. the sphagnum has really been proven to be the best way to cultivate phalaenopsis though. i still use a bark/cinder mix for mine but thats because i water a lot and sometimes with sphag your only watering once a week..

[Bikerdoc5968]

I'd agree with all those that said pic 1 is dehydration...whether from root rot or no roots and the new growth will not "grow" as it should and I have found that, unlike orchids with pseudobulbs, the leaves of Phal's don't "rehydrate" in the same manner as pseudobulbs...just my observations. As for the 2nd and 3rd pics, look at my post "Virus, Fungus.....?" The first response has an excellent link for mold problems and leaf spot...and I believe that is the situation with pics 2 & 3.....for wht it's worth, probably not much

[Bikerdoc5968]

I'd agree with all those that said pic 1 is dehydration...whether from root rot or no roots and the new growth will not "grow" as it should and I have found that, unlike orchids with pseudobulbs, the leaves of Phal's don't "rehydrate" in the same manner as pseudobulbs...just my observations. You might want to try the plastic bag thing, if there are poorly developed/no roots. As for the 2nd and 3rd pics, look at my post "Virus, Fungus.....?" The first response has an excellent link for mold problems and leaf spot...and I believe that is the situation with pics 2 & 3.....for wht it's worth, probably not much

[celiviel]

Thanks for all the info! Here's a quick update:

The second orchid is growing furiously; the size of the leaf pretty much doubled this last week. The spots don't seem to be getting bigger or worse, so I think that one is ok.

The first orchid started yellowing some leaves (second and third from the bottom leaves) the middle of last week.



After that happened, I thought I'd better check the roots since so many of you were concerned about root rot. Good thing, because about half of them were either showing signs of rot or all the way rotted.

Here's what's left after I trimmed off all the bad roots:



It's still got about a dozen good, strong roots left, so hopefully the plant will make it. I sprayed the cut roots with some Physan and dipped them into some rooting hormone before repotting (with fresh media, of course).

Now I guess I have to be patient and see what the plant does.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Bravo! You sound like a pro! Hopefully you saved this one. Look at all the roots that it has. I have seen ones in much worse shape keep going. I bet you will do fine with this one.

Cheers,
BD

[Pete]

ya you should be good to go with those roots and a new mix..it almost looks like it was a chilling injury or something on those leaves too.. and the top one looks burned..cant really tell tho

[celiviel]

It might actually be fertilizer burn. I think I gave it a bit too much in one go right before it happened.

The plant went downhill a bit more after I repotted (the new aerial root went dormant, there's more yellowing, and the pits on the new leaf got bigger), but hopefully that was just the shock of the root trimming and the repotting. I've noticed that this one really does not like being repotted.

[Ania]

Here is my 2 cents about the leave damage: it looks like pseudo phalanopsis mite damage. I had the same thing happened to all of my phals. You can easily get rid of them by washing off the leaves with water and soap. Spray the soapy water on, and then put the whole plant in your shower for few minutes. Do it every 3 days for a while. make sure that after you wash the plant you don't leave water standing in the top leaf. I dry it off with a corner of paper towel. You can't see the mites even with a magnifying glass. I think you need microscope for that. They are probably on your other orchids as well. They cause damage also on plants with thin leaves like oncidium, but not on catts. It is best to treat all of the plants. Anyway, My plants are free of these bugs for at least a year now and recovered very nicely. I lost a lot of phals where all of the leaves got the spots, turned yellow and fell off, but they still had perfectly healthy roots. I still feel sad about it. I wish I found out sooner what was eating them.

I hope it helps your plants to recover.

Ania