Sophronitis cernua rotting problems

[Salixx]

I've been trying to trouble shoot my Soph. cernua for a bit and I thought I had the problem "solved" and then lost two new growths in a matter of days due to rot.

I got my cernua last fall from Andy's and, at first, all seemed fine. It had two new growths that bloomed. Then began a series of rotting issues. I lost a new growth during winter plus two mature growths. Crap, water sitting in the nooks and cranies? I move it to another area with better air circulation but still high humidity (70-80%) and it seemed okay for a while. It started putting out three new growths, which was great. Then I lost another pseudobulb. Crap again, so I moved it to my bathroom window, which is southern (it only got morning sun) and, unless we shower, lower humidity (around 50-60%). My thought was that it would dry better. Whenever I watered it, I would blow into all the nooks to get excess water out.

Again, all seemed well for a bit, the new growths were coming along, one was nearing full size. At this point, of course, I was keeping a closer eye on it. Still, a few days ago I noticed the two of the new growths turning a sickly yellow near the base. Sure enough, both were rotted at the bottom. I've moved it outside at this point and am about to tell it to sink or swim. I have some phyton 27, but I would rather not use it on a plant that I have no strong feelings about and has only ever given me problems.

My culture:

• Mounted
• intermediate to intermediate warm
• watered with rain or r/o daily in the morning, blow out excess water from crevices
• fertilize with MSU at 1/8 tsp/gal once or twice a week
• bright light, couple hours of direct morning sun

I honestly don't know what I am doing wrong with this little plant. I have heard that Catts can lose new growths due to calcium deficiency, but I've lost matured growths too. It's also mounted and is always dry by the end of the day. The parts that die turn black and squishy.

I am not attached to this plant and it's certainly not dead yet, but they are pretty common at the moment. I plan on buying another. I like them as a species a lot, so if I end up with two, that's not a problem for me. I simply want to make sure I don't make the same mistake twice. Maybe I've just ended up with a weak plant to begin with, I'm not really sure?

I welcome any thoughts on this matter. Like I said, I love the species and do want to grow one successfully!

[Leafmite]

I bought this one year for a orchid board project, put it outside with my other orchids one very hot, dry summer, then promptly forgot I owned it. It had no care all summer and thrived. In the years after, I usually grew it pretty dry and it always put out new growth, then bloomed around the winter holidays. I was always pretty impressed at how tough it was. One year when I brought all my orchids inside, it and its shingle were no where to be found. I am guessing some creature took it. As it only bloomed once a year for me and only for about two or three weeks, I did not care enough about it to replace it. It did always put out two flushes of growth ever year...maybe it would have fared better with the blooming had I given it some attention.

[Salixx]

Perhaps I will give it the same benign neglect. Fussing over it surely hasn't worked and I'm not sure what more I have to lose with this one.

[Orchid Whisperer]

i would certainly try increasing Ca and Mg.

Do you know what your residential water quality is like? Is your RO system needed to provide acceptable water? Depending on the mineral make up of your water. Just using your residential water could help with mineral deficiency problems. If you are on a municipal water system, try contacting your water utility for their water report. Many cities or counties have a simplified water report on their website. There should be a more complete version available too. The utility should have data on Ca, Mg, other metals, pH raw and finished, hardness, dissolved solids, conductivity, and a variety of pollutants. If you want the more complete data, you may need make an appointment to visit them to see the complete report. Your state probably maintains this data too.

[Salixx]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

i would certainly try increasing Ca and Mg.

Do you know what your residential water quality is like? Is your RO system needed to provide acceptable water? Depending on the mineral make up of your water. Just using your residential water could help with mineral deficiency problems. If you are on a municipal water system, try contacting your water utility for their water report. Many cities or counties have a simplified water report on their website. There should be a more complete version available too. The utility should have data on Ca, Mg, other metals, pH raw and finished, hardness, dissolved solids, conductivity, and a variety of pollutants. If you want the more complete data, you may need make an appointment to visit them to see the complete report. Your state probably maintains this data too.

I believe my water is supplied by a well, so I think I would have to have it tested. I am also a renter- not sure if they would require landlord approval I know the basics stats- TDS is 130ppm and pH is near 7. I only use RO for the orchids, the water is perfectly safe to drink otherwise.

I could certainly try hosing it down with water straight from the tap. How often does that need to be done?

[estación seca]

Your tap water should be good for most orchids. I would use that for most, and save the RO for slippers and cloud forest miniatures.

I recall there are great S. cernua threads here, with lots of photos. I would read those and see what successful people are doing. Then try to figure out whether there is anything different with your plant.

I've never grown it, but... does it really like 70%-80% humidity? I wonder about that.

[Salixx]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Your tap water should be good for most orchids. I would use that for most, and save the RO for slippers and cloud forest miniatures.

I recall there are great S. cernua threads here, with lots of photos. I would read those and see what successful people are doing. Then try to figure out whether there is anything different with your plant.

I've never grown it, but... does it really like 70%-80% humidity? I wonder about that.

I know my tap is okay, as far as tap water goes but I prefer to use pure water. I feel I've gotten better results overall from when I used just tap, my few problem children excluded . I've switch to rain water for the summer (barring a dry period) and we get a good storm at least once a week that allows me to collect ~20gal.

As for the cernua...

I honestly don't know what I have and have not read at this point. I saw your post a while back on what Alan Koch recommends (dry rest) while others I have read (may have even been another forum!) swear on keeping it moist. Andy's culture notes say to keep it moist and that it grows cool to warm, while others say warm to hot! Gah, so much info .

I didn't think the humidity would be an issue, from ISOPE cernua page:

Mount this species on cork and give hot to warm temperatures, bright light, high humidity, and year round water with less in cooler weather.

[Leafmite]

Here is the link for the Soph project:

Sophronitis cernua (Project 14 - Spring 2012)

People grew them successfully all different ways, if I remember correctly. Hopefully, this will help you.

[Leucadian]

I have 2 S. cernua, having killed the first one I got. These are mounted on cork, outdoors in coastal SoCal, and I spray them every morning with very dilute fertilizer. They seem to be doing better than the departed one (setting a low bar here). I keep the bark horizontal to retain moisture. I haven't flowered them yet. A companion S. rosea is doing much better with the same regimen.

You are probably aware of the AOS article on S. culture, (The Culture of Brazilian Sophronitis ) but it deals exclusively with S. coccinea. Cernua is supposed to tolerate more heat than coccinea. Good luck.