Cymbidium leaves yellowing-quickly!

[Jjspm]

Hello, my cymbidium which is recovering from severe root rot has lots of leaves turning yellow like 4-5. What do I do?

[Stray59]

To me, this would indicate that the roots are not able to support the greenery that is currently there. You could remove them as soon as you start to see they are turning and save the plant some energy, and if you had to remove a lot of roots, you may even want to prune back a few of the older green leaves in order to balance the root to leaf ratio. I really don't know that there is a set ratio - there probably is - but, I know if you have a few roots and a lot of greenery, you stand to lose the entire plant by putting too much stress on a damaged system. It still needs enough leaf surface to make food, but again, you can overload a pared back root system. Like many plants - when you remove a lot of roots, you have to remove a substantial amount of greenery. What a shame - root rot stinks!!
Steve

[Cym Ladye]

If your root rot was severe, it may have spread to the bulbs and you are losing them from black rot. Try the "smell and squeeze" test. If the bulbs are soft from the bottom up or if there is a foulish odor, you have trouble and the plant is probably beyond help. If not, go with Sray59's advice and reduce the number of leaves the plant has to support. Depending on the number of total bulbs, you may even have to convert the whole plant to BBs. A photo would help.

Good Luck,

Cym Ladye