Beallara dropping leaves
 

I acquired a Beallara Pacific Treasures 'Everything Nice' in late October. (Bllra = Brassia x Cochlioda x Miltonia x Odontoglossum) It is a member of the Oncidium Alliance. Since it's been in my possession it has lost 2 leaves off of the largest pseudobulb, and the leaf on the second pseudobulb is yellowing. It has also started growing a 3rd PB off of the largest one. I have checked the roots and there are no signs of rot. I use a bamboo skewer to check that it is moist and water when it dries, roughly every 7-10 days. Humidity might be a bit low. It varies between 40-70%. Temperature varies from about 63 at night to 70 during the day. Any ideas as to what could be causing the leaf drop and yellowing?

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/m...eallara002.jpg

Thanks,
Mark

I think this could be normal. Many of my oncidium alliance orchids will loose their outer leaves from arround the p-bulbs as the growth ages. As it ages even further the leaves will be lost from the bulb top as well.

The new growth looks good, and it's probably diverting it's energy into that growth. I would not worry too much, especially as you have checked the roots.

Beallara Big Shot "Hilo Sparkle", is doing the same thing, I think it is a reaction to being repotted. I repotted about 2 months ago. Have you recently repotted.? Or maybe it is natural as Rosie thinks.

I repotted about 2 months ago as well. It was in sphag so I put it into a bark mix. I'm hoping it pulls through. It was the second orchid I purchased and I love the blooms. I use the bloom as my avatar, and they're slightly fragrant too.

What I believe to be the oldest back bulb lost the leaf it had on top yesterday, but it otherwise seems unchanged. When I bought this orchid this was the only leaf on this p-bulb, leading me to believe this is the oldest one.

RosieC- Have you repotted recently? I think this probably is a situation in which the energy is being diverted into a new growth, but if we all repotted at about the same time a reaction to repotting would be my guess.

I don't think mine was related to repotting. It happened to a few of them, one of which I've never repotted.

I see. Thanks for the reply.