Need help with Dendrobium
 

HI, my mom got me this lil guy because she knows im into orchids. Lovingly she picked me out a plant with no name or info :(
lil guy looked great when i got it. nice flowers. they have since died.(no biggie) but now ive got leaves that end up turning yellow and dieing. I have this dendrobium in lave rock and its really my only dendrobium. Needless to say im clueless as to whats goin on with my plant. any help?
I do water once a week real well and the humidity is at 48%.
Thanks for any help anyone can offer
Matt

Some dends normally lose leaves on the canes. Any pics? If the cane is still green and firm I wouldn't worry too much. Look for new growth nubbins around the base of the plant.

yea haha heres some pics. i dunno why i forgot to post them the first time. the first one is one of the flowers that is no longer. the next 2 are the yellowing plant

OMG! theres mold growing on it...... do you think it might be time to re-pot?

nope no mold. perhaps salts from previous fert?i got the thing day or so after easter.came in lava rock. ive never had anything in lava rocks. is it safe to put in SH?

I did,just now, take the plant out of its pot, cut off the rotted roots(there were a few)and temporarily put it back in its pot with the lava rock. Like I said i dont usually try dendrobiums an currently all of my other orchids are in SH. all except this one.

Matt, what do the roots look like? Any new growth showing?
Joann

I just put my Den in fir bark....... I dont know if it will help or not, but you might take it into consideration...... :D

the roots look white. thats about all i can say for that. i cut the rotton brown ones and left the white ones that werent mushy.

Matt, this is my experience with Dendrobiums. They will sulk and pout from being moved to a new location. I've had them almost die on me and lose all their leaves completely from pouting so excessively. I have a couple in s/h....but honestly they have been slow to establish...like a year or more. I find a bark mixture works best for me. But like s/h, anytime you change it's potting medium to something new, you will probably experience root loss since those roots aren't adapted to s/h. I would wait until you have new root growth before putting it into s/h....or any new medium. I've had dendrobiums pout so bad that I swore I would never try them again. Hope this helps!