Psychopsis with droopy leaves

[chanpatt]

i have had this plant since March 2015. its bloomed twice and is now stressed. soft leaves, shriveled bulbs and is producing a baby. it is inside now and i think its not getting enough light. and thinking about moving it to my greenhouse. what is the best light for it? (in lumens or lux Please). i repotted it about 2 weeks ago

[Ray]

I have always grown them pretty much at cattleyas light levels, but the flaccid leaves suggest a bad root system to me, not a light issue..

[silken]

Mine gets medium light-somewhat less than I give the Cattleyas and it thrives. I water it quite often too as it seems to drink a lot. OrchidWiz suggests low to medium light for Pyp. papilio and Pyp. verstigeeanum which are the parents of mine.

[chanpatt]

what is your suggestion for water damage? i have noticed it is thirsty all the time. the psudobulbs have been shriveled every since it came to me. it came planted in a 3" plastic pot with sphagnum moss, very compacted. i repotted it in a ceramic pot. Would it like this pot better and what type of substrate would be best?

[camille1585]

Droopy leaves isn't because it bloomed, but has to do with not enough water getting taken it up. Either the roots are in bad shape, or you aren't watering enough. mine also likes quite a bit of water, but it's also in a fast draining bark medium, and it's growing in a net pot placed inside a normal clear plastic pot.

As far as light is concerned, mine is in a south window, unprotected. But being in northern Europe, it's strong, but not excessively strong sunlight.

Blooming shouldn't cause this plan to go downhill. Spikes normally last years on these plants, and every year there's new ones popping up. Mine has 4 spikes at the moment, and the oldest one is 5 years old. And my plant is not stressed at all by all of this!

[silken]

I agree, blooming should not stress it. Mine too has 4 spikes, all in bloom and a new growth started. Mine is in a clear plastic pot in fine bark. Any well draining medium that holds some moisture will be OK. And your pot is likely fine. I prefer clear so I have an idea what is going on in the root zone.

The first thing to do is determine how the roots are. If they are great, it was likely being under watered. If they are dead, remove the soft or hollow dead ones and hopefully there will be some left. Soak in some seaweed (kelp) solution to encourage new root growth. Then re-pot. Remember that new bark dries out quite quickly so you may need to water more often until it ages a bit. Soak the bark (if using) first.

It looks like your pot has an attached saucer. Make sure water does not collect in that as it shouldn't sit in water. That would possibly cause root rot. They like lots of water, but it should be completely drained off.

[estación seca]

If you search this board on Psychopsis you can find a lot of threads covering how people grow them. I don't have one now but I've been learning, in preparation for getting one in the not-too-distant future. My takeaway is they need a lot more water than I would have thought at first, but their roots must be well-aerated.

It is possible all the roots on your plant are dead. Were you able to tell when you repotted? Rerooting a plant requires very high humidity but not much water on the stem. Search on sphag and bag. There is an ongoing discussion now about rerooting a Phal that describes this method:

Need help with sick phals