Tips on Caring for a Sick Orchid

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Exhibit A: wrinkled, limp, yellowing leaf

A few of the most common questions I hear from readers are:

  • “My orchid’s leaves are wrinkled/turning yellow/drooping/falling off, what does this mean?”
  • “My orchid’s roots are brown/mushy/hollow, what should I do?”
  • “My orchid is sick, how do I save it?”

So I thought it was high time I wrote a post with advice on how to nurse an orchid back to health. Please note that these tips specifically refer to Phalaenopsis (aka Moth Orchid) care, because that is the most popular type of household orchid. Also, I’m not going to discuss how to treat orchid pest or viral/bacterial problems in this post…we’ll save those for another day.

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