Does my Peristeria Elata have a chance of surviving?

[Butters mom]

Hello all,
This past winter I purchased a very big Peristeria Elata. The nursery said that it desperately needed to be repotted into a larger pot. When it came, the leaves were at least 3ft tall and it had 5 pseudobulbs. 2 older bulbs, 1 small bulb and 2 new pseudobulbs. Well, let me just say that I believe I bit off more than I can chew with her. Because she was so top heavy, she fell to the floor twice. When I repotted her, I went 2 sizes up which she wasn't happy about because her leaves started turning yellow and then just died. ALL her leaves. The nursery said to pot it down a size, which I did. Then one of the new pseudobulbs started turning brown from the bottom upwards. Within 2 weeks it was totally dead. I figured I was doing more harm than good for her, so I just left her alone, watered her once a week and fertilized and fed her twice a month. Kept her under lights and humidity around 60. About 8 weeks ago, I noticed a small green growth coming out and I got really excited! Then it died. Now, I have 2 new growths that seem to be alright but I also noticed that the other newer pseudobulb is now turning brown from the bottom up. I don't know what's going on. I'm afraid I'm just prolonging the inevitable. I've included photos. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[estación seca]

It's been severely underwatered for months. It may survive.

Do your homework before buying a new species you've never seen in person. Go to orchidspecies.com and read about the plant. Then use the Search feature above in the maroon menu. It's likely somebody else here has written about it.

This plant is a large terrestrial that is mostly wet all summer, when it is making new growths. In winter it is almost dry and much cooler. The leaves normally fall off in winter. They turn yellow as they fall.

Here on OB you can find several threads from people who treated it like a Cattleya and almost killed it. This is a very large terrestrial plant somewhat related to Cymbidiums. The plant you got was a half-grown seedling. They need a finer terrestrial type mix so the roots never dry out during the growing season. Large bark will not work.

A mature plant of this will need a 5-gallon pot to grow well. This plant is too tall for most people to grow under lights. Fortunately it is mostly dormant in winter so you can grow it outside during the summer and probably overwinter it in a window without electric lights.

Having been in coarse bark, and drying out regularly, it's possible most of the roots are dead. The plant will need to grow new roots to survive. That is supposed to happen with new growth, but in this case any new roots would dry out rapidly and probably die.

The nursery's responses were not helpful. I wonder whether they know how to grow this plant. On arrival I would have moved it to a minimum of 1-gallon pot with a standard cymbidium type potting mix. I myself would have gone straight to a 5-gallon pot.

I would have kept it barely moist all winter. When new growth appeared I would have begun watering heavily so it never dries out.

As for now - repot soon to at least a 1-gallon pot. A 2-gallon would be better. Use a cymbidium mix. Take great care not to harm any roots. Water the plant well. If you have Kelpak use that. Then don't let it dry out. These are very vigorous; there is a good chance the new growths will survive and do well.

[Butters mom]

Estación seca,
Thank you for your advice and your honesty. I really should have done a lot more research on the Peristeria Elata before I purchased it. I also thought the nursery was just telling me what they wanted so I wouldn't want to send the orchid back to them. I've heard not so positive reviews from this particular nursery and I haven't purchased any more orchids from them. I will be repotting her into a 1 or 2 gallon pot come this weekend and I will be using a lot better medium for her. I believe you about the watering. When the pseudobulb died I was afraid I watered it TOO much, but now the other newer pseudobulb is doing the same thing, browning from the bottom up. Since the new growth, I have been watering it a lot more. When I repot it, do I remove the dead roots or just leave the root system alone? Thank you again for your help

[estación seca]

Leave the roots alone. You don't know which are alive and which are dead.

[Butters mom]

Alright, I'll leave the roots alone. Again, thank you for your help. I'll post updates on how she's doing, good or bad. I can imagine how many Peristeria Elata are purchased every year because of their beauty, and how many of them don't make it due to little to no knowledge of how to care for them, myself included. I have faith that mine will come through this. At one point, I thought I had lost her, until her new growths emerged. I will do whatever I can to help her. Thank you again