Angraecum diderii sudden demise

[Dusty Ol' Man]

All seemed to be going well with this plant. Putting out new leaves and roots, as it should. Then, lo and behold, a spike with bud! But the bud got trapped by the bark texture (mounted on cork). Carefully tried to free it up to no avail. The flower attempted to open but didn't quite make it. Then the flower died. Then the leaves started turning black and falling from the stem. Within a week everything was gone. Just some green root tips left. I have no idea what went wrong. The conditions had not changed since I received the plant in October. Same temps/humidity/photo period/light level. And the watering schedule was a daily soak with a spray bottle and bi-weekly dunk for about 20 minutes, every other time with 100ppm nitrogen ferts. Rainwater with Klite rainwater formula.

Anyone have any ideas? I have been over the habitat norms for the species and my conditions were right in the middle. I'm lost on this one.

[Dusty Ol' Man]

No one?

[Waterdog111]

From my very short range of experience, I have lost more in the vanda family than any others. Im thinking they are touchy . That is why I started buying several varieties to get more comfortable with them.

[Leafmite]

Angraecums are very prone to systemic fungus issues as they come from the breezy island of Madagascar and just do not seem to have developed the greatest resistance to fungus issues. Some growers treat Angraecums proactively with a fungicide to avoid these issues but Calcium works just as well. Once they begin dropping leaves, it is difficult to save them.

I go the Calcium route for my Angraecums. My tap water has quite a bit of Calcium so I use that and also usually add extra...because, yeah, Angraecums.

The only other thing that it could be is too much/too strong fertilizer. Flushing immediately can often save the plant in that case.

[Dalachin]

That is tragic, I’m so sorry it happened! I keep my diderii in very similar conditions, also mounted on cork with daily spraying (although I don’t do a weekly dunk). I’ve also had buds get trapped and have tried with various success rates to extricate them. Mine is a very vigorous rooter, it even tries to colonize nearby mounts. I got it from Peter t Lin in June 2023.

I’m located in central ny and grow on tented shelves, so my conditions are probably different from yours in some respects. I bet you have higher natural humidity- the tenting and misting I do is an attempt to create humidity, but my plants probably do experience my drier climate despite my efforts.

Calcium is an interesting suggestion. I don’t specifically supplement with calcium, but I use 25 ppm k-lite in RO in my daily watering routine, which has calcium. I also have lots of fans in my setup to keep the air moving. My sesquipedales sit right in front if fans.

I’ve been silent since I don’t have any direct experience with an issue like this. In my reading on angraecums, it seems that they are known for fungal issues, and some growers report regular use of fungicides. Since I haven’t had a problem I haven’t gone down that rabbit hole.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[NatalieS]

Any chance sudden demise could've been from accidental miss-labelling or miss-ID? Like perhaps being mistaken for cool-grower rutenbergianum?

Just a wild suggestion on my part, but if a fungal issue seems unlikely, if it was miss-labelled and it's a cool grower, it could have spent itself perhaps?

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Originally Posted by NatalieS

Any chance sudden demise could've been from accidental miss-labelling or miss-ID? Like perhaps being mistaken for cool-grower rutenbergianum?

Just a wild suggestion on my part, but if a fungal issue seems unlikely, if it was miss-labelled and it's a cool grower, it could have spent itself perhaps?

I don't believe so. This was purchased from Hausermann. They are pretty good with their species plants.

[estación seca]

I haven't grown this species. My general approach is to recognize plants in habitat are highly resistant to pathogens, otherwise they would go extinct.

I also know of many species of plants, from many families, that were considered almost impossible to grow until various things were learned about their requirements.

Blackening of leaves does not always mean fungal attack. Blackening leaves develop on Cattleyas when they get sunburn, when new shoots don't get enough water, and when new shoots don't get enough calcium. Other Angraecums I've grown had leaves turn black when they were falling off due to age.

I'm not convinced your plant had a fungal attack, especially since you haven't reported seeing fuzzy hyphae, nor fruiting bodies forming on the leaves. Treating prophylactically with fungicide is not a remedy for something lacking in the growing conditions, even moreso if you aren't sure you have a fungal problem. If plants are considered to routinely develop fungal issues, that means to me we haven't figured out what they want in terms of growing conditions, because healthy plants aren't much susceptible to fungus when conditions are good.

I haven't seen this plant in habitat. I would want to know how often it dries out completely during the growing season, both roots and vegetative parts. I would want to know how much direct sun it gets, if any. I would want to know how humid it is in the growing season.

I would call Hausermann's and talk to their growers. They are very happy to talk at length to customers about how they grow plants.