Paphiopedilum helenae - stained leaves, help needed!

[Robe]

Hello anyone.
I'm here to ask for your precious help.
Almost 2 months ago I bought a Paph. helenae because I was looking for a miniature hot growing Paphiopedilum.
I am not an expert Paphiopedilum grower but I particularly like this species.

Here's the Paphio when I bought it.
As you might have seen the current media is pure bark, quite coarse and the plant is quite immersed in the bark.
The plant is now on the bottom of my orchidarium, with LED lighting, ultrasonic humidifier and a fan.
Here's the orchidarium few months ago, now it's almost identical, with a few more plants in it (I bet you could have seen that coming )
Lately the temperatures reached 30 Celsius degrees (86 F) but never exceeded that.

This is the Paphio now. You can see some leaves growing but I don't really like the general appearance.


I suppose I need to repot it, check the roots and change some of its growing media and conditions.
Please, tell me what to do

[orchidsarefun]

according to OrchidWiz, Paph Helenae is a cool to warm grower - 58f to 75f at night. I think you are growing yours too hot and that is probably why it isn't thriving.

[wintergirl]

I wonder if there might be a tad too much light too. Your plant was a darker green when you first got it.

[naoki]

It looks dehydrated. With that kind of media, you probably need to water quite frequently. I'm assuming that you have decent air humidity since it is enclosed.

Most people grow it with intermediate (and not hot) condition as orchidsarefun pointed out. But my enclosure reaches 88/68F max/min in the summer, and they do ok.

[Robe]

Thank you all
I can easily provide it with less light but I'm afraid I won't be able to do the same with temperatures.
It looks dehydrated to me as well so I guess the rot/black stains come from a watering after letting it too dry.

I am repotting it using some sphagnum, mineral media (marble chips to supply some calcium) and sand and I'll try to water more often.
Does this sound good to you?

[MisterOrchidGuy]

Yes.i think you could try the compost soil rather sand like how I use but its ok its just an opinion

[Robe]

Thanks a lot! I will report the tiny paph this evening and I'll post some of the results later on

[MisterOrchidGuy]

So your decision is soil or sand just asking sorry

[Robe]

Originally Posted by MisterOrchidGuy

So your decision is soil or sand just asking sorry

Uh sorry for not answering
I think I will avoid putting compost soil inside the orchidarium since high temperatures and humidity will degrade it very quickly.
I'll opt for dead and living sphagnum and moss, some fine bark + some little pieces of coal, little marble stones, coarse sand and perlite. I listed the ingredients from the most present to the least

[MisterOrchidGuy]

Ok