Vanda magic red with leaves problems

[AussieVanda]

can you post photos of the roots?

[galeandra]

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

Stop soaking the whole plant, it will exasperate the leaf problem. Wipe the leaves with Isopropyl alcohol 70% (first aid alcohol), let it seep in between the leaves, avoid the roots.

As for the dehydration:
Is it bare root, mounted or potted?
What kind of media if potted?
What temperatures?
Is there good air circulation?
What kind of light (how many hours of direct sunlight)?
How are the roots?

Your pictures look like a dark environment. Vandas need and take a lot of light. Try gradually (couple to few weeks) moving it to a higher light location.

I'll have to dilute the alcohol, here first aid alcohol is between 90-96%.
It is bare roots.
The temperaturas right now between 68 and 86 ºF.
Yes, there is good air circulation, I wide open the window in the opposite side of the room and here weather usually is quite windy, so you notice the aire moving in the room.
I don't have any window that receives direct sunlight in the morning as I live in a small appartment, but it is next to a inclined window (I live in the attic), which makes it receive more light than a straight window, but covered with a window decal so it filters a little the light and won't burn my plants. Believe me, it isn't dark at all, my poinsettia is at 2 meters from this window and all the leaves are green because of the amount of light it receives.

[galeandra]

Originally Posted by AussieVanda

can you post photos of the roots?

Here is the photo of the roots about two hours after watering the roots. The photo is quite bright, they don't look as bright and white as in the potos.

[AnonYMouse]

Use the alcohol as is, just be careful not to get any on the roots. That strength should suffocate any microbe and insects.

Gradually move the Vanda to the window. They take a lot of light. I don't have any large Vandas but have many smaller species of the alliance (falcata, Schoenorchis, Ascocentrums) and all are in windows. I even think some still don't get enough light.

Continue your water and feeding regimen. The roots look good.

[galeandra]

Well, it can't be closer to the window, the leaves are nearly touching it, but it doesn't matter what I do to the vanda, it is getting worse, now it has a new yellow leave each day, so I guess in less than a week she will be dead. I guess it is that whatever illness she has I wasn't able to get rid of it, because I have another vanda in the opposite side of the window and she's doing great.

[estación seca]

I'm not a Vanda expert, but all three of your leaf photos clearly show the leaves are wrinkled. Vanda leaves are supposed to be firm and smooth. This means the plant isn't taking up enough water to compensate for the normal evaporation from the leaves. My best guess is it came from a much more humid growing area than yours and is having a hard time getting adapted. I don't think you should give up.

Plants are continually evaporating water from their leaves. If they can't take up enough water the leaves wrinkle and droop, then the plant drops leaves to try and preserve some of them. Vandas and other monopodial orchids characteristically drop lower leaves when they are too dry, and the leaves turn yellow before they drop off.

Insufficient light also causes Vanda leaves to yellow and drop, but your leaves are clearly wrinkled and wilting. Moreover, you have another Vanda growing successfully beside this one. Insufficient fertilizer also causes yellowing and dropping leaves, but that is not the explanation on a plant you just acquired, which presumably was well-grown before.

Shriveled leaves can be caused by dead roots that can't take up enough water; low humidity, so the plant evaporates water faster than it can be taken up; not enough watering, so the roots can't take up as much water as the plant needs; or, some combination of these three.

The roots on your plant are extremely healthy. That's not the issue. They are drying off properly after you water them.

I don't see any evidence for spider mite or other pest damage. Your 50% to 60% relative humidity makes fungal infection very unlikely.

Your relative humidity is lower than ideal, but it is high enough to grow the epiphytic cactus seen in the background of the root photo. It should be high enough for the Vanda. Before arriving at your house, your plant probably grew in a much more humid environment, so it has been shocked. This also happens to people who come to Arizona in the summer from Europe or Canada. You have another Vanda that is healthy, so this one can adapt as well.

That leaves insufficient watering as the likeliest explanation. My Vanda seedlings were wrinkled when they came in the mail, and again after I was out of town for 9 days. I submerged them in rain water for an hour. They tightened up and looked good. I have read many great Vanda growers water their plants more than once per day, even in humid climates. At each watering, they soak the entire collection once, then come back and soak the entire collection a second time, to be sure the white spongy root velamen is completely wet on each plant.

When you water your plant, make sure the white roots turn dark green. This takes up to a minute or more of staying wet. You can put it under the shower spray and wet it several times over the course of a half hour to be sure it is very wet. Perhaps close the door and any windows to the bathroom so the humidity stays high. Do this several times per day. I don't think it's possible to water a Vanda properly in a house unless the floor gets very wet, or you carry it to a sink or bathtub.

If you are energetic enough, you could move the plant to the bathroom each night so the humidity is higher, and move it back to the sunny window in the morning. I would think once the plant becomes accustomed to your home it won't need as much care as it does now, during the transition.

If you had a container large enough, you could also submerge the entire plant, roots and leaves, under water for an hour. I would only do this for a Vanda with healthy roots showing water stress, not a turgid plant. I wouldn't do this more often than once or twice per week, and I would do it during the daytime so the plant dries out completely afterwards, to prevent fungal diseases. But I doubt in your climate fungus would be a problem.

[estación seca]

You might find this interesting - especially how he waters his plant:

Vanda Manuvadee ‘Blue’

[Bud]

Your Vanda has a fungi infestation. You need to spray it with a fungicide until you see that the dark discoloration of the leaves have stopped spreading. The fungi have started at the bottom part. Hopefully it does not spread to the top. Your plant can still be saved.
Under the Köppen climate classification, Santiago de Compostela has a temperate oceanic (Cfb) climate, with cool and somewhat dry summers and cool (but not cold) wet winters. The prevailing winds from the Atlantic and the surrounding mountains combine to give Santiago some of Spain’s highest rainfall: about 1,545 millimetres (60.8 in) annually. The climate is mild: frosts are common only in December, January and February, with an average of just 8 days per year,[4] while snow is rare; temperatures over 30 °C (86 °F) are exceptional.
Your window is ideal to grow Vandas since it will not burn it yet it gives it bright light. Your 80F in summer is ideal warmth. It is dry summer tho so you need at least more than 50% humidity. Your air circulation is perfect.
The plant had cold dark spots (from cold water and the sun exposure making a lens effect and is conducive to fungi infestation) You must also spray the roots with anti fungicide because it is not doing its job of sucking nutrients for the leaves to process.
All you need to do now is bring out the big guns= chemicals because home remedies wont be fast enough to help it.

---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:31 PM ----------

The reason why the leaves are yellowing early is because the plant is using energy from the leaves to sustain it because the roots is not doing its job.

[galeandra]

Thank you everybody for your replies.
Bud, I don't think we have exactly dry summers here, this has been the dryest one in a long time and the other day we had 53% of hummidity, but most of days we get like today, 77% of hummidity. And well, let me tell you I have met people that live at places were they get 5ºF in winter and they said even here we usually are never under 32ºF, they have never felt such cold as here.
I hope with everybody's advice I'll get to save my vanda.