Yellowing Leaves on Brassavola (Rhyncholaelia) digbyana

[OK2BU]

Newbie here!
I am first going to confess, I am an Orchid Killer! Having some decent experience with perennial and vegetable gardens while living in Virginia, I purchased two orchids 8 years ago, thinking how difficult can it be??
Well, long story short, it was really HARD!

So having given you my sordid background, I'm now living in Southwest Florida. One can't go shopping without bumping into a plethora of these beautiful plants, so I decided to give it another try and purchased a Golf Green "Hair Pig" orchid a few months ago. It actually has had 3 blooms! That's good right??

Now queue the scary music, the last flower just finished blooming and the leaf that it bloomed from is now yellowing. OH NO!! There also seems to be some yellowing on other leaves.

I have researched and learned the following:
A lighter yellow 'complexion' to the leaves is preferable.
Too green and they aren't getting enough light.
One should allow the roots to dry before watering.
Do not over fertilize,
but I do occasionally 'mist' her with a diluted orchid fertilizer.

Wanting my killer days to be over, can anyone take a look at these pics and weigh in?

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by OK2BU

I am first going to confess, I am an Orchid Killer!

That wouldn't be the case if we all do lots of reading and research in advance - before getting an orchid to grow. Learn enough about what we're going to grow, and obtain the required items (pots, media, chemicals, accessories etc) before growing orchids.

I have researched and learned the following:
A lighter yellow 'complexion' to the leaves is preferable.
Too green and they aren't getting enough light.
One should allow the roots to dry before watering.
Do not over fertilize,
but I do occasionally 'mist' her with a diluted orchid fertilizer.

Your set-up looks quite ok. Just make sure - good light levels and good amount of time during the day of light exposure, good temperatures for the orchid, good air-flow to the whole plant (leaves, stem, roots and all), and good air-movement all or most of the time.

It appears that the chosen pot and chosen media allows for good flow around roots. So that's good.

For cattleya - dark green leaves - no problem - as long a the plant keeps growing year in and year out. But they say that dark green leaves generally means not enough light level and exposure - and maybe the orchid might not be able to produce enough food and energy to do certain things - like flowering.

Misting with orchid fertiliser is definitely unnecessary, and probably uneffective. The orchid just needs to get dilute fertiliser in the usual way - through the roots.

Allowing the roots and media to dry 'every once in a while' (eg once a week) may be beneficial - as drying out may well stop certain unwanted things from occurring - buildup or growth of unwanted things. But it won't be necessary to do a dry out between every single watering.

Orchids will stay alive and healthy even if roots are permanently wet - provided that the water remains aerated enough (keeps having usable oxygen in it). The thing here is - how to control other organisms - that could possibly harm the orchids, which can or want to live in wet media. So this is where the idea of 'occasional' dry-out can (could) be beneficial.

Back to the 'dry out between every watering' method --- if you do happen to allow for a dry-out between every single watering - and if your orchid grows happily under this particular scheme, then it's ok to stay with that schedule. The main thing is that the orchid gets enough water to grow well - that's the main thing.

Also - depending on what media you use ----- avoid situations where a particular media gets water-logged, and the water cannot move in the pot due to not enough air-flow ----- and the roots cannot get enough oxygen, and begin to rot.

[OK2BU]

Thanks SO much for taking a look and weighing in. I an being 'tongue in cheek', but seriously want this baby to LIVE!

How I will know if things are going south? I know that with plants, one doesn't want ignore problems for too long.

I do think that I have a tendency to over-do. Killing my last orchids with too much 'love'. ;ox.

Are yellowing leaves caused by:
Too much H2O?
Too much light or not enough?
Mold??? Shiver!

[Roberta]

First, Welcome!

The new roots that are climbing out of the pot look excellent. In fact, I have found that orchids in the Cattleya group often grow better after they escape from the pot. (That tells me that they didn't much want to be in a pot anyway) I think that you are in a good climate for this plant outside. You have good humidity, and warmth. Most of the year, Mother Nature can take care of a good bit of your watering. Take a look at the bark in the pot - if it looks broken down, you can replace it with new bark without unpotting the plant - just turn the whole thing upside down, and gently shake. Anything loose will just fall out. (You don't have to remove all the old bark) But you should be able to see if there are any really bad roots (which you can trim) But you should do fine just putting some new large bark into the pot - the plant is rooting now, so new roots will make themselves right at home in the fresh medium.

[OK2BU]

Roberta,
Thanks SO very much for weighing in. My desire for this to thrive can be a good and bad thing. I think I killed my other orchids with too much "Love".

I am really really happy to have done my due diligence and found all of you at this amazing site!

[Roberta]

Also, if that one leaf is the only one yellowing, it could just be "force of nature" ... This hybrid is half Rl. digbyana, and those do shed leaves now and then - as long as the pseudobulb is firm, it is still helping the plant. At this point, it sound like you're doing the right things. So don't be in a rush to change, just observe and see what the plant does. (I suspect that new growth, if it hasn't already appeared, will be happening soon) If you do make adjustments (such as the light level), do it gradually over a period of several weeks.

[SouthPark]

OK2BU - if your pot has spaghnum inside it ----- no problem. If it is spaghnum - then just make sure it doesn't get water-logged, or else the roots can take a bad turn, which prevents the roots from getting water to the orchid -- resulting in yellowing leaves.

So - if you happen to like watering orchids a lot, then you could one day try scoria. You have to choose suitable sized scoria to match orchid size and pot size. Pieces too small can mean dense-packing and waterlogging ---- but small pieces are ok for tiny pots for seedlings though.

On the other hand - scoria can make the pot quite heavy - which might not be great for your pot hanging. So - bark pieces could be the other option.

[OK2BU]

Thanks! And I wondered what the heck Scoria is, so I looked it up, lava rocks! Wow! Had no idea that one could use this as a potting medium. I will research this of course, but off the top I assume you add this to the other medium one uses for orchids.

Anyway, will definitely look into it. Just saw a post on using bamboo skewers for checking the orchid medium before watering. Interesting.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by OK2BU

Scoria is, so I looked it up, lava rocks! Wow! Had no idea that one could use this as a potting medium.

It is indeed used by lots of orchid growers. For my cattleya in my region, scoria is all that I use. 100% scoria. With a very good drainage pot, it's next to impossible (or maybe impossible) to over-water orchids. Provided that the scoria are of a suitable size. Generally 10 mm average diameter to 15 mm diameter is just fine for regular size cattleya plants.

For very small juvenile plants with relatively small sized roots - a small pot with good drainage using 5 mm average diameter scoria works well.

[DirtyCoconuts]

I wish I saw this yesterday...I drove past you this afternoon and would have happily stopped by lol

The best thing to do is wait and be slow to make many changes. What side of the house do you keep this on? Does it get good light?