Orchid Leaves: All GONE!!

Help! All my orchid leaves have fallen off?

If you have a Phalaenopsis orchid (which is one of the most common orchids) otherwise known as a “Moth” orchid or a “Phal” and ALL of the leaves have fallen off then there is not a lot that can be done. I know this is heartbreaking, from personal experience, because the above orchid is mine and I took very good care of it.

With the absence of leaves the plant can not manufacture food. Sometimes before an orchid loses all it’s leaves it will produce a Keiki (which is a baby orchid and one way an orchid tries to save itself when it’s hurting) but if it has not already done so when the leaves all fall of then it is basically dead.

In most cases this would be caused crown/root rot because of how it was watered. You would know for sure if it was crown/root rot by looking at the condition of the roots. If the roots are soggy/mushy and brown/black then you would know that it has succumb to root rot.

I always ask the following questions when I see this happen and I provide the links below…

1. Was it potted in a pot without a drainage hole?
2. How was it watered? How much and how often?

If neither of the above questions are an issue (like mine) then I say the following (which is what happened with mine):

Many times when we get orchids into our homes they were mistreated before we got them. Mass production of orchids in green houses forces them into bloom (which in itself does not hurt orchids) and then they are shipped to stores. The shipping process is taxing to orchids and then they are placed in grocery stores etc. that over or underwater them and give them zero natural light.

And A LOT of places sell orchids in pots with no drainage which exacerbates all the problems stated above because the roots are basically trapped in water and begin to rot (even though the blooms may look beautiful at the time).

Then we get them, they begin to suffer and we think we have hurt an orchid when actually it was all the stuff that happened to it before we got it. It’s very frustrating but not our faults at all.

Hope that Helps,

Hannah

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