Vanda dying - black crawling dots on roots - please help
 

Hello all,

I hope someone could help. I have been attempting to grow phalaenopsis orchids for a few years now, but vandas scare me and my first experience is not turning out to be so great.

My sister bought this rather expensive vanda back in November. It is not potted in any media (I think) just dropped into a large vase but the base is in a sort of small basket. The advise the man gave me was to fill the vase half up with water and let it stand for 20 minutes. After doing this for 2 months I noticed leaves dropping off starting from bottom and going up. The base of the leaf turned brown and then yellow. Obviously all the flowers fell off and I cut off the spikes as recommended.

I got worried that this was some sort of rotting issue from being immersed in water, so I changed my watering technique to spraying the roots every morning. The rate at which the leaves are falling off slowed, but not stopped. Now most of the roots are brown and these tiny dots are crawling on the roots. Somewhere on the forum it was suggested that something like this could be Globular Springtails, but I really can't tell.

Unfortunately I am unable to add pictures at this stage (being a new member).

I also bought something called 'Superthrive' as this was recommended somewhere here for root growth, but have not used yet.

Please help/advise. Also apologies if I put this in the wrong thread as I probably have more than one issue.

I am not a vanda expert by any means but what has worked for me is to soak in superthrive with recommended dosage and a sprinkling of fertilizer every three days for about 15 mins. Give your vanda lots and lots of light. Mine takes direct sunlight on my windowsill. Some don't always take this amount of light. Gradually build up more light till your Vanda is happy.

Are you letting the roots dry before re-soaking them for 20min? The roots don't like to stay wet for too too long. and it is normal for the bottom leaves to fall off, so as long as u don't see the stem rooting i think u will be fine. how are the roots looking healthy? do they still turn green when u water them?

Thank you for responding so quickly.

Mandy, thank you for your suggestion. I will try tomorrow and let it soak in the mixture for 15 minutes. Do I need to rinse it afterwards? Unfortunately there is not a lot I can do about light. I live in the UK and it is grey at the moment. I am hoping for more sunshine as spring emerges but unlike my previous place of residence where I had massive windows this one is more dim.

Plodde, I am really unsure. I have put some pictures on my profile (if you have a moment to take a look - it lost 1 extra leaf since then and a longer stem without anything in brown colour). I only lost one phalaenopsis to rot (a case of two people watering, me and then mum who thought my watering skills were inadequate). My worry for rot was the reason for stopping soaking and starting to spray it every morning instead. Some roots still turn green when sprayed (though not many) and there is no growth whatsoever. There were 2 leaves in the process of growing when it came home with me ... but they stopped increasing in size and the amount of leaves lost one, after the other, is slightly disproportionate.

Thanks so much. Any thoughts about the black bugs?

the black bugs to my knowledge, are not harmful. they do indicate rotting media tho

That is not good. Is the orchid a lost cause? Or I could somehow get it out of the rotting stage while getting it the water it needs?

I also think it is the following: Vanda Rothschildiana

as the pictures online are very similar to what it used to look like.

Is your home warm enough for this type of Vanda? Is it getting enough light?

I think it is warmish. I live in the UK and the climate is a lot colder than required, but as I moved down South and actually switch on heat it is a lot warmer than some of the other orchids survived in the past. The range is 16C - 21C. But mostly somewhere in the middle.

There is not a lot of light, but I am hoping against hope that Spring and Summer will bring a bit more. I have moved the orchid closer to the window, so hopefully slightly more would help. I am definitely finding a place with more windows the next time I move.

I have also today after soaking in mixture with superthrive attached a wire to hang it slightly more to the mid of the vase as roots while becoming weaker seemed to be going lower and lower.

Should I continue spraying it daily or fill the glass with water for 20 minutes once a week (I think my issue came from 2nd method ... but not sure whether spraying is getting as much water as needed).

The leaves should not be immersed in water, just the roots. Outside, with a nice breeze, high light and good temperatures, the water normally would dry but in a cooler house, with poor lighting and no breeze, rot occurs. So, just immerse the roots and keep the leaves dry.
You also need to give the Vanda more light. It should be kept in a sunny window (but move it there slowly so the leaves don't burn). If you can keep it on the upper range of those temperatures, it would be happier, too.

I grow my vandas in glass vases too. I just water them to the bottom leaf and let soak for a couple of hours. I only water them every 10 days in winter and once a week in summer. I use liquid seaweed every second watering and have a lot of root growth in the summer, in winter the plants are barely ticking over. A south facing window is ideal, and they never get burnt, I don't think that is an issue in the UK. I would make sure that any leaves that are showing signs of browning be cleanly cut off to prevent any spread of what is likely to be some type of rot. It's never warm enough here to put them outside, so keep indoors even in summer.

Thank you for all your help. I think it might be safe to assume that my orchid died. :_(

I think it was black rot. The speed of the leaves falling off increased and when I saw the black stuff on the third in I got very worried. Before the leaves would drop off one at a time.

The strange thing ... the black dots disappeared a few days ago.

Today I took a scalpel to it to try to save some leaves, but ALL of them had it. I cut off the stem entirely and hung it outside the vase. Will continue spraying the roots with water on an off chance something might spring to life (some of the roots still go green. I wonder how far do I need to keep it from other orchids to stop it from infecting others.

I also wonder how far down to roots should I have cut the crown. The stem inside is kind of black.

:(

Anyhow thanks for trying to help.