Looks like I'm killing off another one! Help!

[Helen]

Hi!
I'm having problems with my Tolumnia Esther Oka....it's mounted on a small piece of wood. It was doing great until a month or so ago. It even had a new growth about 1 inch long. I sprayed it whenever it looked too dry...sometimes every other day, sometimes every 4-5 days. It looks very dry daily though and it's in an east window.

The leaves have been yellowing on each section and then dropping off....Out of 3 sections of the orchid the 2nd section is now very yellowed and leaves are dropping off, I'm now noticing just a bit of yellowing on the bottom of the last section...It looks like I'm going to lose this one unless I don't do something quick. At first I thought I was overwatering so I cut back to every 5 days...but this doesn't seem to be helping.

I don't know how long it has been mounted on the spaghnum moss, maybe it's getting too old, but I have never mounted a plant before and I paranoid to touch it.
I took it into the orchid society and they said I was watering it too much. I'm not sure if this is what's going on.

Any help would be appreciated.
Helen

[Helen]

Here's a few photos, not good ones...dumb web cam...
The white leaves are actually more Yellow, the lights are making it white looking.
Thanks again
Helen

[gmdiaz]

I've had problems with mine too. And had to make some lickity split changes.

One thing they do not like is too much humidity. They seem to rot easily. Mine did NOT like mist on its leaves.

I took mine off the mount and transplanted it into a mix of a little bit of chopped spaghnum moss and lots of medium sized charcoal chunks. I water throughly every day but make sure that I water early in the morning, to be sure that it dries out quickly and is dry overnight.

It seems to like really good air circulation too and lots of light.

Just a thought but I bet it would also really like that coconut husk fiber as a potting media. Any one tried that? And I know Ross uses the charcoal chunks for his beautiful bloomers.

[philoserenus]

well u do seem to have a 'chunk' of moss on the roots... could it be that u're misting too much as in the outside is bone dry but the inside is still actually quite wet? do u fertilize? over fertilize? and if u're paranoid about the mount, y not see if it will 'unmount' b/c if it does, y not stick it into a 1" clay pot with huge chunks of charcoal or bark.

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[Ross]

Tolumnias do NOT like high humidity or high moisture. I found hybrids (crosses) to be more tolerant than species. Constant moisture on roots will certainly lead to death. I don't exagerate here. I have best luck with plants in full sun (when it shines) and every-other-day watering. The medium is large charcoal chunks, which don't hold much water.

[Orchidaholic]

Tolumnia's are twig epiphytes. I treat mine as if it were a vanda. HEAVY watering each and EVERY morning... By dusk a tolumnia wants to be BONE dry. The moss on your mount is probably the culprit to its bad health. If you can, each day pluck a little moss off till there is none left, water it daily and make sure it dries by nightfall and it should start throwing out new shoots left and right. Everyone in my society says they are hard to grow. They are easy for me, they just take a little more daily attention than most others... As for the high humidity thing, I have mine in the GH with 40-80%humidity flux day to night. They seem to love it as long as their roots dry by night. In fact I have 5 in spike at the moment and several other seedlings that look strong enough to flower this year...

[Orchidaholic]

To add a little. I have most mounted on fern or in tree fern pots. Some are in cedar baskets filled with lava rock. The ones I have in pots are in small (2 1/2 inch max) clay pots with charcoal, lava rock or a mix of the 2.

[Helen]

Originally Posted by philoserenus

well u do seem to have a 'chunk' of moss on the roots... could it be that u're misting too much as in the outside is bone dry but the inside is still actually quite wet? do u fertilize? over fertilize? and if u're paranoid about the mount, y not see if it will 'unmount' b/c if it does, y not stick it into a 1" clay pot with huge chunks of charcoal or bark.

Thanks to everyone for your responses! I took it off of the mount and it was so very dry ....so I sprayed the heck out of it, picked out the moss and then sprayed again and the roots plumped up. I temporarily put it in a small pot with coconut fibre and some perlite. I need to buy other media...no charcoal in the house right now...until I decide what to use exactly....
I have not fertilized it since Jan 24th (when I saw new growth which of course since died)
Helen

[Gin]

Mine are mounted with no Spag. just the plant and the mount , water trapped in the fans over night equal rot . Picky little things.. Gin