Phalaenopsis Orchid Leaves yellow

Hi,

my orchid was in full flower for a few mths - looking healthy until last week when noticed yellowing of leaves and now the flowers are wilting. Had 2 years so far no issues. It is on a windowsill north facing.

what should I do?

Also how can I encourage another stem to grow?

thanks!

 

Hi,

Once the flowers have faded, cut the flower spike off as low down as possible.

You then need to continue with your normal watering regime, but add to it some Growth fertilizer once a week, when you see a new flower spike growing up a few cm then change to a Flowering fertilizer.
We use the Vitax Orchid feeds which are quiet cheap.

The odd lower leaf turning yellow and dropping off is normal , as long as new leaves are appearing on top and the plant looks healthy as yours does.

 

Welcome to the Gardener's Corner forums, @Kevin73

As @ricky101 says an occasional yellow leaf at the base of the plant is nothing to worry about, this is quite normal. I had one on one of my plants a couple of weeks ago.

I have two that are flowering right now which I've had for 3 or 4 years.
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Thanks both….the flowers have dropped off now.

Am I definitely to cut the stem to bottom or just below the top node?

 

Some folk say just cut the top off the spike as it may encourage some secondary flowers lower down, though not as good as the main flowers.

We always cut right down to the base on the basis it will help stimulate a new spike to form quicker.

Its said you can quicken the formation of a new spike by controlling the temperature the plants are kept at, eg a spell of lower temperature, though in reality, thats more for the commerical growers.

If the plants happy and being fertilised etc it should not be too long before your see results.

 

@Kevin73 I've tried it both ways but I mostly cut the scape off at the base. I haven't found that my plants, at least, make a new scape with more flowers when cutting it back to a node as you say.

It's quite astonishing just how quickly the new scapes grow, they seem to shoot up like a rocket! But the scapes are also very hard with almost no give to them so if you try to train them vertically be very gentle with them - I've broken off a couple of scapes before now! You need to start when the scapes are still small & train them little by little over a few weeks - that at least is how it works out for me. Horizontal scapes are the more natural position for the flowers when they open but take up a lot of space!

 

I used to have a fairly decent show of Phalaenopsis along the back of my conservatory but since I've had the tiled roof put on there are not doing very well.

I always used to cut back the flower stem to the next node and always got more flowers from that point, but I've almost given up with them now, just a few stragglers hanging on.
I find they grow at their own pace and forcing them is not something you need to do if they are happy.

This is December 2015.

 

@pete

How did you stop them falling off the shelf as the flowers grew downwards ?!

Looks like you were growing them in standard plastic pots instead of the usual clear ones, must have worked for you if they kept going for years ?

Just repotted a couple into some clear glass jars to see how well they work, as mention in another recent orchid post.

 

Yes @ricky101 , I found they grew well enough in ordinary pots, but they all had a fair amount of roots just growing into the air as well.

I used to hang lead weights to the back sides of the pots to stop them falling off the shelf.