Brassocattleya leaf turned brown from the bottom up before falling off

[OrchideeNormus]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

It should be fine. A sellers rating will at least more or less indicate that they can be trusted or not. Eg. if you see somebody with 100% positive rating for four-thousand items sold, then pretty much bound to be ok. And ebay usually covers your back too. I've purchased 1078 items (over one-thousand items) from ebay over the years. I had 1 unsatisfactory transaction out of all this, when a item arrived minus some crucial components. What I bought didn't cost a lot, and ebay covered my back for it. I have 100% buyer rating.

That's what I wanted to hear, thank you! Originally, that's how I felt about Ebay. Something changed about 12-13 years ago so I left. I'll definitely check it out again. The same thing happened with PayPal and I've recently gone back to them as well.

[OrchideeNormus]

Just thought I would update you guys. I know it's only been a few days but thus far no negative changes on the plant and it looks really good actually. I think and hope the worst part is over! I've got it in a small yogurt glass (Oui! brand, love those little glasses lol) with a layer of LECA on the bottom and a tiny bit of water. I have been taking it and setting it over the top of the jar at night so it can dry out (I figured night would be the best time since the heater is running, I took the advice I got here and placed it near the heater so it gets a little warm air over it. Not too much!) Then I have been just placing it back in the jar every morning, by evening the roots have all turned green again so they seem to be in working order. I'll keep doing this for another couple weeks before giving it a more permanent home. Now that I've had this issue with it once I'm kinda scared to put it back into self watering. Maybe I'll do a semi hydro setup with it, that dries out faster than the self watering. I'm also thinking this might be a great opportunity to try mounting an orchid... I'm not gonna lie, I'm scared to death of that idea as much as I would love to try it 😂

[Roberta]

Remember that mounted orchids dry out very fast - in summer especially you will need to water at least twice a day and even then you may have trouble keeping it hydrated. And timing for successful mounting is critical - only when new roots are first starting will the plant establish on a mount. So semi-hydro, or a basket with medium bark would probably give you a better mix of moisture/humidity and drying out without killing yourself on maintenance.

[OrchideeNormus]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Remember that mounted orchids dry out very fast - in summer especially you will need to water at least twice a day and even then you may have trouble keeping it hydrated. And timing for successful mounting is critical - only when new roots are first starting will the plant establish on a mount. So semi-hydro, or a basket with medium bark would probably give you a better mix of moisture/humidity and drying out without killing yourself on maintenance.

Yes, this is why I'm scared! If I didn't have to work, or you know, had a regular job with set hours...I could do it lol. In my industry we never know when the day is going to be over. During the summer I might not get home until 7pm or 8pm...I also might get home at 2pm 😂 However, summer is monsoon season so that means high humidity. It also means extreme heat, harsh sun and monster winds! This little guy will likely live inside for a while so I may be able to get away with it. We do run a swamp cooler in the summer so the humidity is significantly higher and near our single pane windows the temperature is always nice and hot. If I can get away with it needing a maximum of 2 waterings a day so long as they were 12 hours apart I could make it work. And then there's winter...I am working on a plan for next winter to make things better for them. A better heating method and a humidifier are on the list for sure. Even better, a heated and air conditioned greenhouse if I can talk my husband into building it lol.

[Roberta]

And you will never take a vacation, even a weekend? It's not the average, it's the extremes that you have to plan for.

My humidity is higher than yours (but not high by East Coast or Midwest standards) in summer, but my mounted plants get heavily misted every day both winter and summer (as long as it's not actually raining) and also overhead sprinklers every day in summer, every 2 days in winter. Watering system is on a timer... when those hot, dry winds blow I can increase the misters to twice a day. And still have a life.

[OrchideeNormus]

Originally Posted by Roberta

And you will never take a vacation, even a weekend? It's not the average, it's the extremes that you have to plan for.

My humidity is higher than yours (but not high by East Coast or Midwest standards) in summer, but my mounted plants get heavily misted every day both winter and summer (as long as it's not actually raining) and also overhead sprinklers every day in summer, every 2 days in winter. Watering system is on a timer... when those hot, dry winds blow I can increase the misters to twice a day. And still have a life.

Vacation? Life?... What's that? 😂 I do get weekends off but rarely leave overnight. I have big obnoxious dogs that I can't leave anyways so that's not really an issue.
I appreciate you sharing your tricks. I have considered getting a mister for my porch because I plan on at least hanging my dendrobiums out here during the summer. Even if I don't mount anything I think that will be so beneficial.

[OrchideeNormus]

Update:
Well, things were going good and I was considering potting it up in semi hydro again and then yesterday I noticed more black on the biggest cane. I swabbed it with isopropyl, checked it again today and it spread 😔 Some of the roots have died off, I noticed most of them died because they were part of one of the original canes I had to cut and apparently it was a completely different plant. The roots were all tangled together, when I cut one of them it loosened the entire batch and it came out easily.
The upside, I still have good roots, one good cane (although it's very immature) and it appears there's a tiny new growth forming. Hopefully the rot will stay away this time and let this poor little plant grow up