Help with a dying Orchid

[suzanne bloud]

[Munir]

I have saved some orchids and will attempt a response here. The first step is to identify what type of orchid you have. Since it's a gift, it's almost certainly a Phalaenopsis:

Take a look and if that if this is the case. If so, then proceed. If not, then visit orchids.com and see if anything looks like your plant. The reason to identify is that some orchids require different potting material and have different light and food requirements. Okay, with that out of the way let's try to save the orchid:

a) Examine the flowers, the stem the flowers on attached to, and the leaves. The typical Phalaenopsis, after blooming, will have wilted flowers with dropping petals, a flower stem turning brown, and one leaf (usually the lowest) turning slightly brown at the edges. This is all normal. The thing to do is to heat a small scissors (use hydrogen peroxide or the flame of a gas burner to sterilize the blades first), cut off the inflorescence (flower stem). The plant doesn't need it anymore and will grow another next time it flowers. The plant will soon or has already grown a new top leaf and so the bottom leaf will sooner or later turn completely brown/yellow. After it does so, you may prune it off.

b) Examine the roots. If the plant is in a transparent pot, this is easy. If the plant is not in a transparent pot, I would not remove it from the pot for repotting unless the roots are dark, black, and rotting or the potting material seems to be breaking down (crumbles easily with one's fingers). Since this was a gift we can assume that immediate repotting isn't needed.

c) Examine the culture. The plant should be in a place with bright, indirect light, and not too close to the window if the glass gets very cold at night. Water once per week in cooler months, up to twice per week in hotter months. Allow it to dry between waterings. Every other watering, feed it orchid food. I recommend GROW MORE Urea Free Orchid fertilizer 20-10-20. Use a tiny bit, dilute in water, and pour over the top of the potting material so it gets to the roots. For best results, use reverse osmosis water. If you don't have that, water filtered through a Brita filter works well too. (Do NOT use soft water, as the salt will kill it.)

d) Print out a culture sheet. The one from the American Orchid Society is useful:

will help you learn about your orchid and optimize it's environment a bit more over the course of the year.

That's it! With proper culture, it will flower again and again. If the roots do turn out to be rotten, just follow one of the many guides for repotting. Most hardware stores and nurseries sell orchid potting mix. Don't hesitate to cut off the rotten roots when repotting. I have had to prune orchids down to a single root on occasion and they have always recovered.

Best of luck,

Munir