brand new dendrobium with yellowing leaves

[maranta]

hello!
i'm a complete beginner to orchid growing, i have many other plants, but have always avoided orchids up until now. a few days ago i got my first, a dendrobium hollywood (i think) and its already getting yellow leaves! i want to try to save it before i lose that lovely inflorescence.

i have it in an east facing window, med to bright (no direct) light, and in the few days i've had it i've watered lightly once. and i checked its roots, which look healthy. its in bark, not sphagnum moss, maybe that's the problem?

thanks!

[Roberta]

Don't water "lightly" ... take it out of the decorative pot, hold under faucet and let water run through the medium (which wets it well and also pulls air into the root zone. Let it drain well before putting back into the decorative pot. Then depending on heat/humidity wait for 3 days to a week and repeat. (Watering frequency depends on how fast it dries out.)

[Swimmingorchids]

hi maranta,
fairly new to the hobby myself but since you already grow other stuff that's a good start.
As you know plants can get stressed easily and it is easy to do more damage by trying to rectify lots of things at once.

The plant is showing slight stress - the bottom set of leaves on each cane is yellowing. Your plant overall is very healthy looking with lots of leaves. Once these fall off the plant will still be fine.

Since you have checked the roots and all is well, just keep an eye on it and don't change anything except for the good soaking bob suggests.

If the yellowing does continue then it might be worth investigating but nothing to worry about for now since you just bought it and moved it.

I would not transplant it since it is already stressed unless absolutely necessary.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Swimmingorchids

... except for the good soaking bob suggests.

I'm not "bob"

[BrBl]

I have 2 phal orchids I planted into a piece of driftwood I found by the river. I used spagnum moss and wrapped around the roots, per an instructional video I watched, Stuffed it carefully down into the holes in the driftwood. I also used some accessory plants, small ferns and a succulent. I'm misting it, per instruction for water. The problem is, each orchid has 2 spikes. The leaves look awesome, so do the roots. But, on each orchid one spike is dying. The buds die before they bloom, and the flowers that were on them just fall off. It's very weird because the other spikes on each plant look great and are still blooming. Does anyone know why this would happen? Any suggestions?

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[rbarata]

Originally Posted by Roberta

I'm not "bob"

Maybe she/he meant Rob.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by BrBl

The leaves look awesome, so do the roots. But, on each orchid one spike is dying. The buds die before they bloom, and the flowers that were on them just fall off. It's very weird because the other spikes on each plant look great and are still blooming. Does anyone know why this would happen? Any suggestions?

Hard to say what happened for now. How long has that plant been growing there for roughly?

Photos of the plant and environment could be handy. And growing condition details ----- temperature ranges during the day/night, relative humidity levels, lighting levels. Watering and the media might also play a role in this, combined with the environment. If it has been growing there for a relatively long time, then any fertiliser used?

---------- Post added at 06:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:20 AM ----------

Originally Posted by maranta

and in the few days i've had it i've watered lightly once.

That's one of the important factors ----- watering --- as in not only how much water to put into the media, but whether that media is able to hold a desired amount of the water when you water.

Dry bark from a dry packet won't take up water too well until it's actually wet enough, or has been dunked or exposed to water for long enough. If you pour water on dry bark, you'll probably notice that the water runs off it like water off a duck's back.

And watering 'lightly' is relative. It's hard to say what lightly means, like a few drops, or a spray of water, etc. It was mentioned by Roberta etc that it may be necessary to really run enough water through the bark in order to get wetting of the bark. You have to make sure that your bark is of a type and size that can still drain properly, without water getting stuck inside and stagnate. And make sure that the inner pot doesn't sit in the drained water caught in the outer decorative pot.

For my dendrobriums, I'm using scoria ----- and I use anything like grills, sticks, etc to get the very good-drainage pot away from the surface of dish or decorative pot ----- that's to ensure that the pot doesn't sit in drained water.

While the attached photo click here shows cattleya-type plants that I recently purchased from ebay....... I have a Dendrobium moschatum nearby (not seen in the photo though), set up in exactly the same way.