Hello,

I have bought this orchid and was told to water it about 3 sprays on a daily basis, then I started adding 1 ice cube per day.

Small shoot started turning brown then flowers falling, so I removed it Found some rot, cut it and repot it in wood bark inside of a glass vase, and I started noticing outer leaves turning yellow and other shoots started to turn a bit brown and flowers falling.

Temperature is around 22-25, central Ac (not direct, northern window (there is no direct sunlight) and there is a yellow led light above it.

Stopped putting ice as I read I could put 3 ice cubes on a weekly basis and am spraying 1-2 times waiting for a week to pass to start with the 3 ice cubes.

Sorry for the long post, Please advice me what to do.

Appelio said:Hello,

I have bought this orchid and was told to water it about 3 sprays on a daily basis, then I started adding 1 ice cube per day.

Small shoot started turning brown then flowers falling, so I removed it Found some rot, cut it and repot it in wood bark inside of a glass vase, and I started noticing outer leaves turning yellow and other shoots started to turn a bit brown and flowers falling.

Temperature is around 22-25, central Ac (not direct, northern window (there is no direct sunlight) and there is a yellow led light above it.

Stopped putting ice as I read I could put 3 ice cubes on a weekly basis and am spraying 1-2 times waiting for a week to pass to start with the 3 ice cubes.

Sorry for the long post, Please advice me what to do.

The ice cube thing is a pretty dangerous game. Ice cubes typically do not provide enough water for your orchid even on a daily basis. You can also damage your plant with the freezing temperatures they give off. Unless your last orchid container had no drainage holes, I'd suspect lack of water is more likely the culprit of your withering blooms.

Does your new container have drainage holes? Orchids need good drainage and prefer a container that allows more airflow to the roots, as orchids are actually epiphytes.

Also, it could be as simple as the orchid's bloom cycle ending. They bloom for around 3 months typically, but can bloom more.

I'll tag @Ursula and @BigBill for some expert-level help.

CrazedHoosier said:

The ice cube thing is a pretty dangerous game. Ice cubes typically do not provide enough water for your orchid even on a daily basis. You can also damage your plant with the freezing temperatures they give off. Unless your last orchid container had no drainage holes, I'd suspect lack of water is more likely the culprit of your withering blooms.

Does your new container have drainage holes? Orchids need good drainage and prefer a container that allows more airflow to the roots, as orchids are actually epiphytes.

Also, it could be as simple as the orchid's bloom cycle ending. They bloom for around 3 months typically, but can bloom more.

I'll tag @Ursula and @BigBill for some expert-level help.

Then I will stop the ice cubes, yet I don't know how much water is enough, and for the cycle, I only had it since like 3 weeks now, so I don't know if it's cycle is ending.

For drainage, I have added a layer of river stones and small white gravel to ensure that the roots are not in direct contact with water if there is any excess.

And for the bark, I only used what was originally there with it, with a small amount of gravel so there wont be any roots without some cover.

Appelio, welcome to the NGA and I encourage you to look through our orchid forums. There you will find several "sticky's" and threads dealing with Phalaenopsis orchid care. Please read the "sticky" there regarding "Using Ice Cubes" to water your Phalaenopsis and another entitled Starting out with Supermarket Orchids-Phalaenopsis. They will provide a lot of information.

In short, orchids are tropical and sun-tropical plants. Ice cubes are never a good idea as that sticky will explain.
They like to be watered roughly one day for every inch of pot A Phalaenopsis in a 4" pot can be watered every four days. You try that schedule and adjust from there. Phalaenopsis should not dry out between waterings. NO DIRECT sunlight, even a bright North window is okay. They should be repotted every two years.
They love a temperature range of 60-85. They will take temperature out of that range but for short periods of time.
Some one will move your question to the Orchid Forums where more orchid growers will see it and answer you. If you have future questions, please post them there for quicker responses.

Putting stones in the bottom of a pot is NOT acceptable since no water drains from the pot. Either drill or cut drainage holes into the pot.

BigBill said:Appelio, welcome to the NGA and I encourage you to look through our orchid forums. There you will find several "sticky's" and threads dealing with Phalaenopsis orchid care. Please read the "sticky" there regarding "Using Ice Cubes" to water your Phalaenopsis and another entitled Starting out with Supermarket Orchids-Phalaenopsis. They will provide a lot of information.

In short, orchids are tropical and sun-tropical plants. Ice cubes are never a good idea as that sticky will explain.
They like to be watered roughly one day for every inch of pot A Phalaenopsis in a 4" pot can be watered every four days. You try that schedule and adjust from there. Phalaenopsis should not dry out between waterings. NO DIRECT sunlight, even a bright North window is okay. They should be repotted every two years.
They love a temperature range of 60-85. They will take temperature out of that range but for short periods of time.
Some one will move your question to the Orchid Forums where more orchid growers will see it and answer you. If you have future questions, please post them there for quicker responses.

Thank you for replying, i just signed up and am a novice in this site and taking care of plants, so will do so next time and great advise, hope this will fix the problem.

So I need to drill my pot for drainage, it's 6" in total but the roots are deep 4" so around 4 days in between, I still don't have an idea regarding the amount of water

You water it thoroughly until it flows out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the pot. That's one reason that you need drainage holes.
Use water roughly 90* F
Fertilize every three months at half the recommended strength,

Welcome, Appelio!

I've moved this thread to the Orchids forum.

How adventuresome are you? You have the perfect setup to turn this project into water culture.

The thread "Does anyone do water culture?" in Orchids forum

Keep the setup you have and keep the water level at a point were it covers somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the roots.

BTW, your plant looks really good. Nice green roots, green leaves. Flowers fade and die so don't worry about them. If the flower stems don't turn brown, don't cut them. They will bloom again.

Well cared for Phalaenopsis will bloom for 6 months or more a year.

Australis said:Welcome, Appelio!

I've moved this thread to the Orchids forum.

Thank you

DaisyI said:How adventuresome are you? You have the perfect setup to turn this project into water culture.

The thread "Does anyone do water culture?" in Orchids forum

Keep the setup you have and keep the water level at a point were it covers somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the roots.

BTW, your plant looks really good. Nice green roots, green leaves. Flowers fade and die so don't worry about them. If the flower stems don't turn brown, don't cut them. They will bloom again.

Well cared for Phalaenopsis will bloom for 6 months or more a year.

Thank you, I just checked the link it is helpful.

I just changed the setup again to a plastic one, wood bark with drainage holes in it.

so can I change it again to the glass one and keep the same setup?, wood bark and lower part 2" of stones and gravel fill it with water to reach up to 1/4 - 1/3, of the roots?
Because I saw only orchid with water, and didn't see any mix.

Now that you have moved it again, I wouldn't move it again. All this moving is taking its toll on the plant.

But to answer you question, rocks yes, bark no. You would have to keep the water below the bark.