prag penn's creek - leaves turning brown and leathery

[klkelly]

My mom's orchid needs help. We bought it at an orchid society sale and we really want to save it.
It says "prag penn's creek grande 4N4 wallisii"

We have been following the instructions and its done great. My mom went away for a month and I brought it to my house. It did very well the last time I had it also. This time it started to get a black tip on one of the leaves.

My mom got it back last week and since then its going downhill. She described it to me clearly: it gets brown tips, then the edges go brown and then it goes all leathery.

Can you guys help. I can't find this out with any certainty using google. My mom said she used new scizzors to cut off the leaves.

I kept it with my other two orchids but it was with them before. I have three NoIDs from the grocery store of course but keep these separate from the orchid society orchids (I have two different types not the same as my moms).

Thank you for any advice.

[klkelly]

I think the disease section is best. So I posted the question over there. Maybe someone can delete this post for me. Sorry for the duplication.

[Lagoon45]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Phrags love to be very moist, to the point you might even feel like you're overwatering it. Phrags also like good water quality .... RO or distilled water, if you're water is to high in salts they will indeed turn on you

Too much ferts or even the wrong type [to high in calciums] can cause leaf tip burn

Let us know more about you're water and you're potting media.

Regards,
Gloria

[klkelly]

Ouch I think I might have done it in then. I used my orchid fertalizer but don't have the box. Its in a tupperware. And I bet I didn't let it drain completely so some of the water it was sitting in may have had fertalizer. So if this is the case what can be done? And I'll have to admit this to my mom

It is in a big bark substrate if I recall correctly.

I'll let her know about the RO water/distilled water. Distilled won't be an issue.

Its more than leaf tip burn though. The whole leaf is being affected. SO maybe I've hurt the root system.

My water is well water. High in GH and PH (7.6 out of tap but changes) and KH. My moms water is city water low GH, no KH and high ph out of the tap (9.0). It survived the past stay at my house last year so I don't think its the change in conditions. My house is sunnier than hers is.

I suspect I've hurt it though