Orchid flower dying can indicate that your plant is getting less than the optimum growing conditions. While it is an indication of serious problems most times, it isn’t always all bad. Sometimes it can be part of your plant’s natural life process.
Come along as we explore why your orchid blooms are falling, and proffer suitable solutions for each problem.
Why Is The Orchid Flower Dying?
The orchid flower is dying because of low humidity where it is located, or having repotting stress, temperature change, or pest infestations. You may be watering it less than the requirement, or it received excessive or lack of sunlight, the plant may be stressed, or it is a natural process.
– Low Humidity
Most orchids require relatively high humidity levels to thrive, and problems like flowers dying will occur when there is a shortage or drastic decrease in the standard humidity levels, problems like flowers dying will occur.
Low humidity levels will cause flowers to fall prematurely and plants to look generally dry, and it would weaken the ability to blossom, but even if it does, the flower will not survive for too long.
It’s important to note that high soil moisture content differs from humidity. So, your orchids can suffer from low humidity, even when you’ve been watering them consistently, and that is how it would result in dying orchid flowers.
To be sure that your orchid petals are dying as a result of low humidity, inspect your plant for shriveling or wilting leaves and pseudobulbs. To eliminate these symptoms, you will need to adjust the humidity level of your plant’s surroundings.
– Repotting Stress
Repotting stress is another reason the flowers of your orchids may be dying prematurely. While it’s good to repot orchids to keep them healthy, the plants can sometimes go into shock due to stress on their roots during the process, causing the blooms to drop prematurely.
Orchids usually need some time to acclimate to their new potting medium, so flowers dying or leaves yellowing can occur, and when you repot them to a new pot, they will have stress because of the environment that now they are in, is not as familiar.
– Temperature Change
Any temperature change outside the optimum range can cause the flowers of your orchids to wilt and drop. Several orchid species thrive in different temperature ranges, from cool to warm.
On the one hand, if the type of orchid you’re growing loves warm temperatures, any slight drop in temperature can cause abnormal behavior in your plant. In addition to this matter, if you’re growing cool-temperature orchids, a slight increase in temperature can also cause abnormal reactions like dying blooms in your plants.
When you notice dying flowers on your plants, check their location and place them away from things like heat vents and open windows to prevent dry heat or cold drafts. Also, orchids are sensitive to the temperature of the water they receive, because this is a key notion why instability is the reason for the flower to die.
Too hot or cold water can cause temperature shock, causing your plants to become dormant and their flowers to die prematurely.
– Pests Infestations
Orchids are susceptible to several pests, especially insect pests, which are prone to feeding off their flowers and leaves. The feeding action of many of these common orchid pests can cause damage to your orchids if they’re infested. When they do, they would begin to absorb the sap of the plant, and this way, it will weaken, no longer having the ability to have surviving flowers.
While the degree of infestation will significantly affect how much damage these pesky insects can cause, dark spots and tiny bites are not a good look for your gorgeous orchid flowers. Ultimately, if the infestation persists, you’ll notice your plants’ beautiful flowers dying. If you notice dying blooms on your orchid, inspect the entire plant for pests, as they might be the culprits.
– Under Watering
Orchid plants generally love water, except for a few species that thrive in extremely dry environments. If you notice the flowers of your orchids falling off, it can be a result of the plant getting too little water. Limp leaves and shriveled-looking plants usually accompany this, but for this, if you wish to be certain that the problem with your plants is under watering, you can check their potting mix for moisture content.
If the bottom mix is dry, your plant is likely not getting enough water. Also, orchid roots that are getting less than the required amount of water will dry, having gray-colored roots that break easily. This is the most suitable way to tell if the problem with your blooms is under watering.
– Over Watering
Overwatering can also be a problem for the flowers of your orchids. While these plants typically love water, too much of it can cause problems. The major problem over-watering causes is root rot, which is common among many orchid species.
What happens is that when the water becomes too much, the growing media becomes waterlogged, which results in the roots beginning to suffocating. The problem with this is that root rot affects the general health of your orchid, and it can show in different ways, including yellowing leaves and dying flowers.
– Excessive Sunlight
Another possible reason the flowers on your orchids fall off is excessive sunlight or artificial light exposure. One important thing with these plants to ensure their survival is to make their environment look and feel as close to their natural habitat as possible.
While many orchids enjoy bright light, and some even bright, direct light for a few hours, prolonged exposure to the sun can do more harm than good. These plants typically require bright but indirect light to thrive, but when they have the abundance of it the plant would start stressing.
Some of the problems that can arise from too much light are that your orchid leaves can start yellowing, and flowers will drop early. Once you notice any of these issues, attending to them as soon as possible is best to save your plants.
– Too Little Sunlight Exposure
White and excessive amounts of light can harm your orchids; too little sunlight can also do some damage. Although it isn’t as scary as it seems, you might lose a few flowers if your orchids receive too little sunlight, but what happens is the plant would not have the same ability to develop right. Orchids require plenty of light to perform photosynthesis. However, they need even less light for blooming to take place.
In short, it’s all about getting a proper balance to achieve luscious green leaves and gorgeous blooms. If you observe that the flowers on your orchids are falling prematurely when all else is right, consider finding a new location for your plant.
– Plant Stress
Your orchid can become stressed for various reasons, including sudden temperature fluctuations, relocation, chemicals in the atmosphere, and water temperature shock. Any of these can cause your plants’ flowers to drop prematurely, especially in their budding phase, it is called bud blast when you notice your orchid flowers dying before opening.
Sometimes the stress can be temporary, but this can easily be avoided. Moreover, if you see that the flowers of your plants are dying, you should ask these questions. Now, think to yourself if you changed your plant’s location recently or use cold or hot water on your orchids.
Moreover, you must also count as stress if you placed your plant close to a heater or an air conditioner. If your response to these questions will determine if your plants’ bloom dropping is a result of stress.
– Natural Process
Dying orchid flowers doesn’t necessarily mean anything bad. It can simply be part of your plant’s natural life cycle. It’s natural for the flowers to wilt and die after they have bloomed on flower spikes. This blooming time and length are different for many orchids.
Take Phalaenopsis orchids, for example; these orchids bloom late during spring and all summer. During this time, you’ll enjoy their lovely flower display until they eventually fall off and die, to repeat the same process during the next blooming season.
When you notice blooms falling from your orchids, and you will look at some point, check whether or not it’s in its blooming season so you keep or eliminate “natural process” as the cause for it. If the natural process is the cause, you have nothing to worry about, so you must wait for the next blooming season to enjoy your stunning flowers.
How To Avoid Orchid Flower Dying?
To avoid orchid flower dying, you should adjust the humidity of the plant, and provide the right care after you repot it. You must locate the plant in the right place, and ensure that you get rid of the pests, schedule the watering sessions, and place it in indirect light.
– Adjust the Humidity
If you notice your orchid flowers falling off due to low humidity, there are several ways to fix this. First, you can look for a more humid location for your plants, like your bathroom or kitchen, which are naturally humid rooms, to reduce the stress of constantly trying to keep the humidity levels high.
You may also try misting your plants with water using a spray bottle as frequently as possible also helps. However, the easiest and most ideal method is to use a humidifier. With this, you can adequately monitor and control the humidity level around your plants.
Another easy method to raise the humidity level around your orchids is to place the pots and a tray or dish filled with water and pebbles to raise them. This way, you can easily increase the humidity level around your plants without necessarily doing the same for the entire room.
– Provide Care After Repotting
There’s very little you can do once your blooms start falling due to stress from repotting. You can only try to make your plants as comfortable as possible, consistently providing them with their required growth conditions to reduce stress. Subsequently, during the process of repotting, choose new pots that are slightly larger than the old pots, and be careful with the type of growing mix you use to reduce the stress on your plants.
– Locate It in the Right Place
You can fix problems caused by the slight fluctuations in the temperature around your plants by trying to keep the temperatures constant as much as possible. Several things like an open window, a heater, air conditioning, direct sunlight, an open oven, and heat from a dishwasher or a fireplace can cause these slight changes in temperature.
As little as these changes in temperature can be, they can disrupt your orchids’ natural flowering process. As a result, you should keep your plants away from these things, and make sure to avoid changing their locations when you see that they begin to grow in a healthy way in their new place.
– Get Rid of The Pests
It can be challenging, but not totally impossible, to get rid of pests causing dying flowers, especially if there’s a large infestation. You must know the type of pests you’re dealing with before you can proceed with treatment.
Some treatments that work to get rid of pests include using fungicides, bactericides, and miticides. If you spot just a few pests, you can easily hand-pick them or spray your plants with water to get rid of them. Ultimately, you don’t want to leave a single one behind, so the problem doesn’t persist, and in short, your plant will be blooming again when this issue is tackled.
– Make Sure to Schedule the Watering
At the point when the flowers on your orchids start to die and fall off prematurely, it might be way past the point of salvaging them. However, you can save the plants and expect new blooms during the next season by giving them proper soaking and watering them as frequently as required.
Remember to avoid water touching the leaves, as that can result in mold. What your plants need at this point is enough water to rejuvenate their roots, and this is why a good 20 to 30-minute soak is ideal, after which you should allow the plants’ pot to drain properly to avoid overwatering. You can repeat the process till your plants start to look healthy again.
On the other hand, when it comes to fixing the problem of overwatering, you will need to check the health of your plants’ roots. If the roots are completely rotten, it may be late to salvage the entire plant.
If there are still salvageable parts, you can save the plant by trimming off the rotten roots, with sterile cutting tools, and planting it in a new potting medium. The key is to catch the rot early enough, and after this, you must reduce the watering frequency and provide all the necessary growing requirements.
– Place in Indirect Lighting
Prevention is more suitable than cure in this case. However, once you start noticing falling blooms or leaves turning yellow, consider changing the location of your orchids to a spot with filtered light.
If the case is severe, with already dried yellow leaves, you might have to cut them off to prevent them from rotting and spreading, causing more problems for your plants. For this, remember that once the damage becomes this extensive, you might be unable to salvage the blooms, but you’ll save your plants and enjoy fresh blooms in the next season.
On the other hand, when it is receiving little sunlight, you need to change your plant’s location to a spot where it’ll receive ample sunlight without burning. You can keep moving your plants till you get the perfect place.
Ideally, most orchids should receive six to eight hours of bright, indirect light daily, so a location that satisfies this requirement will be best.
– Avoid All Plant Stress
To prevent your blooms from falling as a result of stress, avoid anything that will disturb your plants’ natural growing process. For example, frequent relocation, temperature fluctuations, changes in water temperature, and chemicals in the atmosphere can cause stress.
There’s no stopping your plant’s natural life process. Flowers will eventually die after they have bloomed. What you can do, however, is provide your plants with all the necessary care requirements, to make their blooms last longer.
Conclusion
What’s important is that you can rectify this with the proper orchid care or plant care requirements, and we will highlight a few important points below.:
- Dying flowers doesn’t necessarily mean anything bad; it can be part of your plant’s natural life process.
- Pest infestations can cause dying blooms in your orchids, which is why you must tackle them with neem oil.
- Low humidity, repotting stress, over-watering, under-watering, and excessive sunlight are other conditions that can cause your flowers to die.
- Orchids lose their flowers in winter, as it isn’t something to worry about, as it is part of their natural life process, and typically shed their blooms after six to eight weeks.
When you notice your blooms dying, the most important thing to do is investigate the cause and then proffer a suitable solution, as we have established that the flowers on your orchid can die and fall off for several reasons.
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