Spider Orchid Watering

[aliceinwl]

I have what I think is a Bratonia (Brassia x Miltonia) that I picked up from Trader Joes back in September. I have it on the same watering regime as my Phalaenopsis: once weekly thorough watering. It's in bark, kept indoors, with temps in the upper 60s to low 70s in the room, but likely somewhat cooler since it's on a window sill.

Should I be watering it more/keeping it wetter? Bark is damp but not wet when I re-water (I've used the skewer method to test). It's original leaves are slightly curled lengthwise, but there is no wrinkling in the pseudobulb. It's in my office so playing with the humidity isn't an option but I could water more frequently.

It was in the process of bud blasting when I bought it, but I really wanted one. It was in a peat mix so I went ahead and re-potted it which caused it to drop the rest of its flowers. It had a single growth/pseudobulb and about 2/3rds of the roots were totally dead when I took it out of the peat. It's been growing new roots (slowly) and is pushing a new growth (very slowly). About two weeks ago it surprised me by initiating a second spike from the old pseudobulb. The spike has been growing at a fantastic pace: at least two inches a day to start with and is now over a foot high with lots of flowers developing.

[Ray]

If the plant is growing and about to bloom, why would you want to change your culture?

[aliceinwl]

These are my only orchids with the leaf curling issue and I’ve seen a lot of posts saying that Miltonias like lots of water so I was wondering whether I was a bit on the dry side in terms of watering if these tended to take after the Miltonia side. I’ve had other plants (not orchids) flower as a last hurrah.

[camille1585]

If it's the original leaves that are curled, then it's likely due to conditions while those particular leaves were growing (so not in your care). If the bulbs are plump and the new growth has nice straight leaves, then it sounds like your culture is good.