Psychopsis Mendenhall root tips dying off

[sewagner86]

Need some advice. I have a psychopsis Mendenhall that I have had for maybe 8 or 9 months. It was gifted to me by a friend. It was bought from Seattle Orchids as one of their as is plants. I have cleaned it up by taking off old, squishy psuedobulbs and cleaned up the dead, squishy roots. It's been potted up in this pot undisturbed except for watering and fertilizing. I am trying to figure out why the newer root tips are withering up on me. I haven't fertilized it for a few weeks thinking maybe I could be burning roots (although I typically fertilize weakly). I have a small seedling psychopsis that is doing amazingly well. Growing roots and thriving....treated the same way for watering and fertilizing. Any suggestions to troubleshoot?

[Louis_W]

My root tips often die if they are above the mediabecause i have super low humidity. Are there any going into the media? Are those ones doing ok?

[sewagner86]

Originally Posted by Louis_W

My root tips often die if they are above the mediabecause i have super low humidity. Are there any going into the media? Are those ones doing ok?

I dont see any fresh roots going into the media, there are some close and probably 2/3rds of them are dried on the ends of the root tips.

[Paphluvr]

I don't have experience growing Mendenhall, but from what I remember growing papillio they don't like to dry out. Are the bottoms of the pseudobulbs partially in the mix?

[sewagner86]

So the newest growths no, they pseudobulbs are not in the mix. The old ones are. Maybe, I should repot or make it deeper in the mix? I don't know. My tiny seedling psychopsis keeps putting out new growth and looks wonderful, this big one however the root tips keep dying off.

[WaterWitchin]

Like LouisW says, probably not humid enough for the way it's planted. Yes, I'd repot a bit deeper. Are the roots of your seedling psychopsis down in the medium? That's probably why it's doing better.

In my limited experience with the three psychopsis I've had for a pretty long time (10 years maybe?) they never put out aerial roots, and I've never had new roots grow above the medium. Looks like it wasn't potted deeply enough to begin with.