B. nodosa dropping leaves...help!

[Orchidreamer]

Today I was watering my brassavola nodosa and I noticed two leaves were detached from the plant and lying on the surface of the media. Then as I watered the plant, more leaves came loose at the slightest movement. In total, I lost 10 leaves and I'm very worried.

I've seen leaf rot, but I don't think this is leaf rot because there are no mushy brown patches. The leaves just come clean off the base. I don't see any bugs or mold. The only thing is that the bottom of the leaves look slightly yellow and wrinkled.

I've had the plant since October of 2010, and it's planted in an 8" pot with tree fern fiber, and has about 70 leaves. It never dropped leaves before and I only noticed the problem today. I haven't been doing anything different. Indoor temps is 65 F, humidity around 40%...I water once a week with light fertilizer. It is placed a few ft from a window where light isn't very high.

Any ideas what's wrong?

[Zoi2]

Are the fallen leaves from random areas of the pot or all on one side? Could those leaves have gotten too cold by the window?
Joann

[Gin]

I would check out the roots if you can without removing the plant from the pot maybe take out a little mix , nodosa likes a lot of light and dry between waterings they do well mounted ,if in a clay pot they will mount them selves on it and cover it .Joann might be right on about cool they like warm Temps.
Mine would lose a leaf off an on but it would dry up , yours look to good to come off without a reason ..

[RobS]

A posted by Gin and Zoi2 to much water or to cold.

[Oscarman]

The leaves looks a bit yellow lower down where they attached to the pseudobulbs. I am suspecting root health is the issue.

[CTB]

Have you always had it in low light? Many problems such as low light take a few month to appear. 65 is kind of chilly. More light and warmer would be my suggestions.

[susiep]

I really don't like the looks of that dark one. There is a fungus that causes leaves to drop and it spreads along the rhyzome. It gets bad fast and spreads to other plants, too. You cut out a section of the rhyzome where the leaves came off and look at the cross section. If you see black inside the rhyzome (even a dot) you need to cut back until there is no black and treat the plant with strong antifungal like dithane and thiomil. I lost a specimen sized B nodosa to black rot last winter. So check that out right away and hopefully it is not black rot.

[RosieC]

As an aside... could any of these suggestions also apply to a Leptotes Unicolor.

I'm having a very similar problem with my Leptotes Unicolor but it's a different genus to this. First I thought it was after I had dropped it, but this week 4 more leaves have dropped and I'm getting concerned.

I don't want to divert this thread onto a different plant, so if you have any comments on whether the same stuff applies please post it on this seperate thread I've started.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...tml#post371841

[Orchidreamer]

Thanks for the replies. As of today, 8 more leaves fell off and a couple more are starting to look yellowish around the base. I'm afraid the plant will be leafless if it keeps going at this rate!

Ok, to answer questions...

It seems like the dropping leaves are occurring randomly, everywhere. Seems like both old and newer growths are affected.

I've had it in low light ever since I got it. Maybe that's the problem. Yeah, I wish it'll be warmer indoors but if I turn up the heat, it'll be way too dry and the heat bill will be way too high. I moved the plant closer to a southern window next to an air vent.

I checked the rhizome and the "stubs" where the leaves were attached to, and luckily I see no black rot. I cut off a leafless piece just to check.

I checked the roots and it has a lot of (old?) dead roots but I did find some good roots. Some of the roots are turning partly brown though. And also, when I water, the media feels very dry to the touch...but in the future, I will check more thoroughly.

And RosieC, wow that's worrisome. I hope yours is okay.