Dried out pseudobulbs at base

[james mickelso]

Right on King. The cane with the flower looks healthy while what we can see from the first picture looks like dormancy is setting in. Some OZ dens throw spikes from dormant canes. The roots in the first pic look very healthy. The media doesn't look broken down much. Twice a week watering sounds a little much even for a den. If there were a problem with roots or a disease was attacking the plant, the first thing to go would be the flowers as the plant will abort them in favor of energy to the newer cane or roots.

[silken]

But the poster says even the ones in flower are having a problem and can actually be pulled right out. Sounds like a root problem and 3 years is pretty long to leave potting medium that is watered several times a week.

[james mickelso]

Silken, I was just looking at the picture provided. That's what I am basing my assessment on. The roots I can see look pretty good and the media doesn't look all that bad either. Usually the flowers are the first to go. I see an old flower stem in the background but without a few more pictures it is actually difficult to make much more than an educated guess.

[Buggalugs]

Good day again. The area I live in is Subtropical, so we have very hot and humid summers and in winter the night temperature hardly drops below 15 degrees Celsius. As you can see in the photo's i will be posting, the orchid is in a wooden container and when watering the water just runs thru. Its mostly planted in bark. I cannot see anything eating the roots and the stalks with flowers on also is busy drying. It made 3 flower stalks and only one does not show this dried out affect. If this is dormancy then 1) why will the ones that is in flower also have it and 2) why has this not happened before? And yes you all correct to say its mid fall, however we still reach temperatures well in the 20 degrees Celsius. Because of the container it is planted in that has a lot of open areas, the roots has grown threw these gabs. Will i not damage the plant now if I take it out? How do I make sure I don't damage too many roots? You can see in this photo this flower stalk dries at the bottom and the rest is green

[Buggalugs]

Another photo

[Buggalugs]

And another

[Buggalugs]

And the last photo, hope this will help.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I was merely telling you what the plant's habits were, I did not really do a full diagnosis on your plant because I couldn't see the photos from my cell phone while I was at work. I had a bit of down time, so I was looking around the OB for a bit to occupy myself.

While the plant does go through a dormancy, turning yellow at the base of each cane is not a sign of dormancy.

Leaves dropping is not usually a good indicator of something being amiss when the leaf drop is occurring close to the time that dormancy is about to kick in.

I don't see anything bad going on with the roots.

However, leaving the orchid to grow in the same potting media for 3 years could cause serious problems, particularly when the potting media is organic and will start to break down in all sorts of manners. This orchid more than likely prefers to grow much like its parents - as lithophytes. As lithophytes, they grow on rocks, which are inorganic materials.

Q: What does it matter if the orchid is grown in rocks as a potting medium versus growing the orchid in an organic bark medium?

A: It most likely has something to do with the potting media to allow for certain ion exchanges to occur.

With that said, it might help out to describe into further details as to how you are actually growing this orchid.

How hot is it during the summer?

How bright is the orchid growing?

How often do you water?

What are you using for fertilizer?

How often do you fertilize?

When did you first start noticing that the orchid's canes were starting to yellow at the base?

What were some changes in growing environment that occurred during the time when you started noticing the yellowing of the base of each cane?

Maybe answering these questions may shed some light into what's happening to your orchid.

[Buggalugs]

Hi. In summer the temperature is anything between 28 to 35 degrees Celsius. In summer I water twice a week and in winter only when i see its dry. I use Nitrosol (an organic fertilizer), however i could do this more often. I started noticing the symptoms a few weeks ago, so you could say as we started going into fall. The orchid grow's in shade outside however do get a lot of light.

Would this mean I must use gravel as a potting medium? In one of my previous post i also mentioned that there was a rock in the container, it is an iron rock and very heavy, i used it to prop the plant up. Could this of been an influence....seeing that it's an iron rock?
Thank you for the input so far.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

28 C to 35 C = 82.4 F to 95 F. This is the usual range for the orchid's parents in its natural habitat. There's nothing wrong here…

The possibility for problems lies in watering the orchid twice a week in this kind of heat. It's in my opinion, not enough.

I have temperatures that go higher than yours during the summers. But even when the temperatures are about as high as they get for you guys, I find myself watering my own orchids far more than just twice a week. Sometimes, I will either water mine in these kinds of temperatures everyday or once every 2 days depending on the orchids.

The rocks that the orchid's parents come from are granites. I'm not sure what kind of iron rock you're referring to, but providing too much iron than the plant can handle could cause problems.

The plant should be grown in moderately bright indirect light to the lower end of bright indirect light. Putting the orchid in a shadier location can negatively influence the plant's growth and blooming.

During dormancy, water the orchid only once a month to once every 6 weeks.