I talked with a family member that I had gotten hooked on orchids. Shelly told me her phaleanopsis were having problems and described how they looked. I went to see her a few days later to visit and look at her phals. She was right, they were definitely having problems. The leaves on the worst plant were limp and had a checkered texture in the leaves. The lowest leaf had turned yellow. I looked for signs of infestation and didn't see any scale, mealy bugs, or aphids.
She then demonstrated her method of watering. She was careful not to get water into the crown while running water through the mix then she sat the plant back on the window sill. I felt that they were too close to the window and chilled. She also told me that her house has a water softener. I brought the worst plant home with me to see if I could help it.
I have a filter on my faucet and used tepid water to leach her plant. I sat the pot in a bowl then ran water into the pot over the mix until the bowl was full and the bark mix was trying to float, then lifted the pot out to let the water drain out of it, emptied the bowl, and repeated the process. The purpose was to completely rinse the salt out of the mix and clean the roots. This was 4 weeks ago.
The lowest leaf finished dying and fell off a few days later. About three weeks later a new growth started at the base of the plant that appears to be a bloom spike. Yesterday, I saw a new leaf beginning to grow in the crown. While the phal is not yet out of the woods, this is a good sign. It means that the crown had not died and the new growth is coming in naturally.
I tell people never use softened water on your plants. Water for your plants should be at least room temperature. If you can, collect rainwater or water from an air conditioner or dehumidifier for that purpose. If your city uses chlorine in their purification process, it may need to be filtered and allowed to sit in an open container for 24 hours or until the chlorine is neutralized.
