Hey Guys! I was wondering if ya'll could help me out. I live in Houston, TX and have a second floor balcony/patio (covered). But it is hot and humid in houston. I do live right by the pool...if that helps anything. I have no clue if I should keep it indoors or outdoors. I bought it at Walmart (I know) last weekend. It had bright leaves and three flowers on it. After a couple days in the sun I notice the leaves near the stem were turning lighter...is it getting too much sun? So I brought it in. Needless to say two flowers fell off the one stem and the stem is turning brown. Do I cut it? I have absolutely no clue or know any terms. I have been reading about spikes and stuff and do not have a clue! lol. Any help would be nice. I attached pictures. I just repotted it and have been misting the leaves...expectally the part that turned lighter color. When I repotted it the roots were thick and green. So I am assuming they are healthy? They looked healthy to me but again I have no clue what healthy is suppose to actually look like. Ignore the dozen roses that are dead in the back round...my roommate doesn't want to let go of those! loL!
It's a Phalenopsis orchid. Fairly normal for it to drop old blooms - cut the flowering stems off about 3" above their origins once all the flowers are gone. What did you re-pot it into? This is an epiphytic (ie does not like soil) orchid, and if it's in soil etc. it may develop root rot. If you did put it in soil, please take it out again! The optimum thing to do for it is Orchid Bark or Orchid Potting Mixture; local greenhouses should have this. Your leaves look a little floopy - it might be because of this. Does that pot have really really excellent drainage, or does it hold water? If it doesn't drain like a seive, change the pot. Waterlogging might be causing the floopy leaves, and it will eventually rot the roots into moosh and the plant will die. Healthy air-roots in my experience are firm and white - was the green colour a growth on the root, or was it the actual colour? A lot of the orchids I've been seeing from big-box stores like WalMart seem to have some kind of moss or algae or something growing on the air-roots, and it seems to me that it can't be good for the plants. I can't speak to indoor-outdoor growing though. I live in Ecuador, and all of my orchids live outside.
Well needless to say my orchid is not doing so well. the leaves look yellow and the flowers fell off. I went ahead and cut the stems down. I used an orchid mix. It seems like the pot does drain very well. I think maybe too well. It was super dry when I suck my finger in the pot and when I watered it the water went straight through. Yeah...I don't know what to do. So I water it more often? I stopped cause I thought I was watering it too much but now it seems like it's not getting enough since the pot was dry and the leaves are turning yellow. I am obviously not doing something right :(
Phals are pretty thirsty orchids, at least in my experience with them - you should be watering daily until the water drains out of the bottom of the pot (especially in your climate), and probably also misting them at night. Best of luck!
Getting your watering frequency to match your orchids needs (dependent on light, temperature, humidity and growing media type) is one of the challenges of growing these plants. As Phalaenopsis usually like to be continually moist (not sopping wet/not bone dry) perhaps placing your present orchid pot in a larger pot or tray with pebbles/gravel and water to keep more moisture around your orchid (actual growing pot not touching water level). Another option is the semi-hydroponic method (S/H or passive hydroponic system) with LECA or lavarock as the growing media in a resevoir to hold water. I also wanted to check about the size of pot you used to repot your Phal, it should be only large enough to contain the root system and no larger as this can lead to root loss later. Shaun
