Brassavola— wrinkled and stippled leaves
 

I have a brassavola hybrid that doesn’t seem to be doing well…it has these leaves that are all displaying different bad signs, stippling, wrinkling, and other indentations. Today I noticed there was some sap unevenly on the underside of one leaf…sap, in my experience, has been indicative of mites before and I’m worried. Can everyone weigh in?

First glance at the leaves had me thinking "dehydration" which could be caused either by bad roods or underwatering. But when you mentioned the sap droplets on the undersides of leaves, it sounds a lot like spider mites (which are tiny - visible with a hand lens but hard to see with the naked eye). If you wipe the underside of the leaves, any sign of red streaks? Even if not, it's suspicious, and treating for mites (Neem oil or soapy water for a start, consider a miticide) would be something I'd do if it were my plant.

I think your first guess is the correct one Roberta because I see zero roots outside the pot.

I bet if you get it out of there and into some coarser media and cut the watering down it will be fine.

I'd agree, take it out of the pot and check the roots. If it's in the original pot, it is likely well past needing repotting no matter what else is going on. These really don't like pots very much, and certainly hate soggy, airless medium.

Thank you for your replies! I’m hopeful it’s just roots and not spider mites! I did try to check and didn’t see any red streaks when I wiped the leaves. I will say it’s always felt “light” in the pot, so I’ve always suspected that the roots weren’t great, but I didn’t get it until august so thought I would wait to repot.

I’m in California and was going to wait a bit to repot, but do you think it will be fine to do now?

It looks like this is a Sunset Valley Orchids hybrid, Blc. Suncoast Sunspots x Bl. Richard Mueller? It has substantial bifoliate Cattleya ancestry and needs more water in the growing season than plants with more Brassavola ancestry. Depending on your temperatures I would water as soon as it's dry, rather than letting it stay dry for a while before watering.

I'd be scare if spidermite can actually fester on hard leaves like those.

Thanks for all the feedback! I appreciate the note particularly that the hybrid (that you correctly identified Roberta!) might need more water than others. Thanks all!