Hi everyone,
Some two weeks ago I got a chiloshista lunifera orchid (the leafless orchid). The plant came "mounted" on a plastic mesh, had two small leaves and the roots seem to be covered by a thin layer of dark green powder (which can be swabbed away by cotton swabs) which I suppose are algae?
So during the following week, the leaves have fallen off (which I suppose is normal), but the roots have started to dry out rapidly. At first I watered the orchid once every two days, then once every day and now I do it twice a day, by soaking it in distilled water for 10mins. When the orchid was in open air, it seemed to dry out in almost an hour. Since a few days ago, I have moved it into a small terrarium (40x30x30cm), placed the hydroton balls on the floor (which I soak in water previously) of the terrarium and fog it (using ultrasonic humidifier) twice a day. This seemed to have allowed the roots to be moist for hours (I don't know if it's a good thing?). I also tried placing a fan inside the terrarium to blow gently in the direction of the orchid, but this makes the roots dry out rapidly.
The terrarium is placed on the southern window, but never receives direct sunlight.
So my questions are,
1. Am I doing something wrong? I don't really see it getting better.
2. Does it need to dry out completely between soakings and, if so, how long to wait after it has dried out before next watering? The humidity in the terrarium seems to be rather high now, judging by the glass fogging.
3. Is a fan inside a good or bad thing, how important is air movement?
Photographs:
PIC1
PIC2
PIC3
PIC4
Chiloschista lunifera, help needed
Threaded Mode
