Wilting Bud on Phalaenopsis Orchid: INTERVENTION needed asap.

[Petal Pusher]

My Phalaenopsis orchid began blooming the first of this year. It had
two lovely blooms at one time which died off at the appropriate time.
It began developing another bud which was coming along nicely until
the day before yesterday I thought it might be wilting. I chalked it
up to my imagination. Yesterday it looked very wilty and today it (the
bud) is clearly dying. It is drooped right over. I don't know what
could be causing this. No mold on it, the leaves are the same as
normal. The only thing I can think of is that the cats knocking it off
its pedestal and partially into the water that I keep around its
pedestal for humidity has overwatered it. I'm new to orchids, but it
doesn't seem like this should cause the bud to die. If there is
anything i can do to save my last orchid bud please let me know as
soon as possible!

Thanks!!

[dennis...@aol.com]

Dear Petal Pusher:

It is kind of hard to know, as many things will cause bud drop on
Phalaenopsis, but I can give several thoughts on the matter.

1. Sudden spikes in conditions (I talk about this at length on a few
other letters posted here) can cause this.

2. If your cat, in playing with the plant punctured the bud, this
could easily cause it to abort.

3. If this is a first bloom seedling it may only have had the strength
to open two flowers, and gave up trying to mature the third bud.

4. If this plant is blooming for you a second time (perhaps purchased
in bloom last year)and has produced fewer buds than last year, you
might be keeping it in sub-optimal conditions. This would limit the
number of buds produced and increase the liklyhood of bud drop. Make
sure your light is bright enough, that the night temperatures remain
above 60 (except perhaps for a few weeks in the fall), and that the
plant is being allowed to dry between copious watering.

Although we have links to AOS culture sheets on the site, those links
appear to have broken, so look in a few days for the Phalaenopsis
culture sheet that will explain the conditions they prefer in detail.

Hope this helps!
Dennis

[dennis...@aol.com]

Actually I just noticed the Phalaenopsis care sheet found on this site
(under Techniques/culture) still works, though the ones on the SFOS
site do not. So check that out.