Help with Potinara Burana Beauty 'Burana'

[LovePhals]

Here is some pictures of my plant. It didn't look very good when I got it in flower and it looks worse now. I repotted it right away into the smallest pot I had in an open medium of clay pellets. I am keeping the roots just moist, with a few applications of seaweed extract to try and initiate root growth. It is in a sunny south window with afternoon sun.
It has very few viable roots which are all on the healthiest bulb. It just got down flowering. It hasn't done much in the last month but the leaves blackened and will fall off soon. I am very familiar with black rot and the blackening is just the leaf dying off not black rot. The bulb attached to the darkening leaves is now turning yellow. I assume b/c that bulb has no roots. It may just be dying back from the lack of roots but want to know if there is anything I can do to help the plant stay alive!

[Paul]

Personally, with plants in really rough shape -- particularly with a deficit of healthy roots -- I prefer the sphag and bag method.

[WhiteRabbit]

I'd pot it into a very small pot, abd then care normally for it, allowing media to dry in-between waterings. Orchids with pbulbs can be very resilient.

[ALToronto]

I think the clay pellets might be keeping it too dry. I would add some sphagnum at the top, and use it as a guide for watering. Use a small squirt bottle and add a few drops of pure water at least twice a day. I rescued a completely rootless catt in semi-hydro, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it's the universal cure.

[silken]

The pot looks too big to me. I would do as WhiteRabbit suggested and find a smaller pot. Also cattleyas like to dry out so by keeping it moist could add to root rot. I think the clay balls and clay pot will also keep the root zone cool and some heat would be more beneficial. A small clear plastic pot and some bark would be my choice with maybe a bit of moss to retain a bit of moisture although I rarely use it for Cattleyas. If its a seedling, finer bark and a bit of moss might help.

[denvervet]

I had exactly the same problem, I took the dead stuff off, put it in a teeny tiny pot with bark and gave it more sun, it's growing like crazy and once it was just about dead. I use Miracle Grow Orchid food for it. i bought this Pot. at Lowes and it was in trouble when I bought it, so I took it home and gave it some nice bard and a BIG pot to grow in and bright light... it did nothing and grew no roots for 18 months! I hacked off the dead, put some cinnamon on the sore and a year later it has 6 leaves instead of two. It dries out completely before watering. It also gets sun behind a sheer for about 2.5 hours a day, seems to love it. We get sun here more than southern California this is why I know it likes diffused sun, its thriving!!!!

This is the orchid that never grew a root, check out the root pic! Remember, teeny tiny pot for this with lots of ventilation on the sides of the pot and air moving a bit in the room...

[denvervet]

I forgot to say mine is in a north-easterly window, I dont think it could take a southern window here in colorado. I feed twice a month if I remember.

[dounoharm]

definitely a smaller pot, and preferably a clay pot, not a glazed one...the glazing is attractive, but not conducive to strong root growth as the roots have nothing to cling to.....I prefer very very large bark chunks for any cat alliance plant, and watering copiously every ten days to two weeks....as much sun as you can give it will help! good luck!

[LovePhals]

Thank you so much for all the advice. I down potted into the smallest pot I had and changed to a plastic pot. I will also add a bit of sphagnum on the top and try to give it sun as suggested. I hope it does like yours, denvervet, those roots look happy.