Pleurothallis? Heat damage?

[Roberta]

Consider a tin snips. Can get through pots that garden shears can't. (I start with the garden clippers that I use on plants first, those work fine on pots up to about 5 inches) The 3.5-4 inch pots or smaller that young plants come in, usually are very easy to cut. For short cuts (like for removing parts of a plastic basket to free up trapped Stanhopea spike) a diagonal cutter works fine.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

In the future, if you have orchid roots stuck to a pot, soak the orchid and the pot in a bucket of water for 10 - 15 minutes. First, squeeze the pot to pop off any roots that will come off easy using this method. Second, use your thumb to slowly and gently roll the roots off the surface. If they’re too stubborn, soak longer and try again. If the roots are stuck between holes, you can cut the pot.

To answer your original question, I think you may be referring to the dimples on the top surfaces of the leaves, am I correct? If you are, that’s not heat damage. That’s because there may have been a stretch of time it didn’t get watered. It wasn’t a long enough period to kill the plants off completely, but it did cause some stress. Nothing to worry about. Grow them correctly, and the old leaves will fall off over time when they get old, and others won’t even know it ever happened. The clue is that the previous grower used bark and they were larger pieces.

Both species you mention are pretty temperature tolerant, btw.

[qbie]

Oh, the original grower actually used some mix of inorganic media. I was the one who put the Stelis keikis in large bark and this No ID in that same large bark but also with sphagnum mixed in. I think the large bark, even with sphagnum, might still have been too dry as you and Roberta have both said. I replaced as much of it as I could (trying not to disturb the roots) with smaller bark. Will see if it helps both plants not to be as dry. Somehow the Stelis keikis were happy enough to flower only being put in large bark, but this one has had a rougher time. But when I took my division of it, it didn't look as healthy either. Will see how both fare with the switch to smaller bark. Thank you both