Brassavola nodosa dropping leaves at alarming rate...
 

Yesterday a leaf fell off my Brassavola nodosa. It fell off the pbulb that just finished blooming. I tried not to be too concerned but today a handful came off...I'm practically in panic mode. This plant had been thriving for me and astounded me with 3 gorgeous blooms that lasted almost a month or so. Some factors I'm hoping are the cause and that it's not something too serious are: since we moved at the beginning of April it has gone from bright, direct eastern sun to sitting on my fireplace getting bright shade at best. I also took all my mounted orchids out last week because we had a beautiful day and it wasn't supposed to go below 60...needless to say it rained overnight and got down into the mid to low 50s.
Should I start to panic, unmount it and start snipping old pbulbs (the ones that dropped the leaves are a little soft but def not mushy), or could it be from lack of light and getting cold and wet? Appreciate any help, Tha ks! :)

Two ideas:
One, treat with a copper-based fungicide
or
Two, divide the orchid into two...the part where you are losing leaves from the healthy part. Use more Calcium. I did this when I had the same problem...lost the part that was losing leaves but the other part is fine, thankfully.

It looks like a fungus attack. The stress of the cooler temperatures may have weakened the immune system. Good luck!

I don't have any copper based fungicides so I guess I'll be dividing it, poor thing :( Thanks so much for the input!

When I've mounted hybrid Brassavolas such as Little Stars, I've skipped the sphagnum and mounted straight on to wood and the plant thrived, producing many roots. Consider skipping the moss if you feel it is holding too much water and encouraging rot. You will need to mist the roots daily while in active growth.

So glad I checked in before getting started! I think that I will take your advice. I'm a chronic over waterer and I think this is my best course of action. Thank you!

Edited:
Its not coming off the mount without a fight and I'm afraid that'll do more harm than good. I removed as much moss as I could and I guess I'll just have to do my best to cut out the bad pbulbs... Wish me success please, I'd really hate to lose this one :(

I wouldn't remove the entire thing from the mount, just remove the moss and any sick pseudobulbs, plus one extra. I had forgotten it was mounted.

Done. I cut back as far as I could and applied a cinnamon and rubbing alcohol paste to the cuts. The poor thing looks so small :( Hopefully I got it all...

When I got mine from Andy's orchids, it just almost all of its leaves. I was in Boston at the time. I think the plant was very unhappy about the drastic change in culture. The plant never died and sat doing nothing until I moved it to LA where it gets much more light. After almost a year here, it has gone from its lowest of 4 pbulbs to maybe 8. It hasn't bloomed but at least it's moving in the right direction again!

It was quite amazing how fast it lost those leaves when it did, though. I thought for sure it was dying, but it wasn't.

The roots still look good. I'm wishing you luck as I would be very upset if I lost mine. Good luck.

Being damp and the chilly night outside did the same thing to my Brassi.
Living in Florida this isn't that big of an issue but it does happen.

And the change in the amount of natural light it's getting will send the plant into an "adjustment period".

If you ever want it to flower again, you'll need to give it better light than "bright shade." These guys thrive on bright, tropical strength sunshine.

Thanks everyone! No new leaf loss so far today so I'm feeling optimistic...it was a dumb mistake, one I won't make again (leaving it out). I'll be keeping an eye on it and sending hubby to the store for copper based anti-fungal, I need more of my cal/mag supplement anyway, I'm almost out.

Yes! I gave it TONS of light last year and it really took off, I was shocked that I got it to bloom for me but I definitely attribute that to the amount of light it got. Unfortunately all of my mounted orchids got kinda shoved in the middle of a fairly dark room for the last month and a half as we've been settling into our new home. I'm still not sure what to do about orchid placement because this house, light wise, is not nearly as good for windowsill orchid growing as our last. Fortunately soon I will be able to put them outside safely for the summer. I'll probably have to look into supplemental lighting because I don't see how else to meet the lighting needs of most of my orchids otherwise...

Remember this plant will grow luxuriantly hanging on a string or wire with no media at all. You don't need anything extra that retains water, especially if you like to overwater.

You misunderstand...I don't like to do it, I have to do it...this is beyond my control :rofl:

I cut off all the fishing line and got out/off as much sphag as I could, the plant has a massive (for a plant in my collection anyway) root system firmly adhered to the cedar shingle I mounted it to. I'm hopeful it will recover and flourish for me again :)

If you really do have to water every day, consider just setting the plant in a low, wide clay pot for support - only - no medium.

I wonder what your cats and dogs look like LOL

Does a squirt or two or 50 actually count as "watering" lol It was actually doing really well until I left it out overnight in the rain and I really didn't find many dead roots. I think Leafmite hit the nail on the head about the lack of light for a month and a half being a contributing factor in as much as the plant was already stressed and more susceptible to an infection

I have your solution. Buy more! If you increase your numbers to a critical mass level...the sheer number will ensure no one orchid is "loved to death". With more...you can still love them every day but you'd have no choice but to spread the love out and ignore part of them for days in between those watering love-fests. ;):biggrin:

This is my plight...too many to ever even think about loving them all every day. :blushing:

That's what I did!

And once I can physically complete my re-potting you guys are going to sick and tired of my pics and posts!

;)

Nobody in the history of the world has ever completed their repotting.

Sorry you've seen leaf drop; usually too little moisture and too little humidity will do it for brassavola. Mounted, it's almost impossible to overwater them; provided you let the roots dry between waterings (they'll become white aside from the green/reddish growing root tips). Good culture on these; as noted above, mount bare (unless they have no roots when mounting them up, then use a sparse sphagnum pad), 45-70% rh, good airflow and high light (Laelia/cymbidium level; though you'll need to reacclimate your plant). Contrary to the others, I would not split the rhizome; like cattleyas, they are capable of throwing roots and budding vegetatively from damaged rhizomatic growth.


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That is one of the other reasons I put everything in red lava rock or have them mounted...I am not a fan of re-potting (that and I can kill anything in bark). :|

---------- Post added at 03:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:54 PM ----------

It sounded like something systemic. This past autumn, I had something like this in my nodosa and split it to ensure that I would not lose the entire thing (did not want to spray Captan in the home). The one half continued to lose leaves and died while the other has continued growing well and will soon be blooming. I was concerned that the OP had the same issue.

I'm probably amiss in my thinking, but if it were systemic, I'd guess that the entire plant would continue to progress negatively even after the division was made. The exception, I believe, being newly developing growth--this is the reason you can replicate virus free clones via meristem from virus infected plants.

I've seen infections that seem to move from one pseudobulb to another of a Cattleya and saved orchids by removing the infected section...and lost them when I didn't. No idea. Just observation.