Helping a vanda with crown rot
 

Hey guys,

I have a vanda hybrid that got crown rot about a month ago. It only lost one leaf at the crown, and then I promptly threw cinnamon in the crown to dry out the rot. That helped, I haven't seen a trace of rot since, but there is some dried cinnamon still sitting in the crown.

My question is this: Would it still be able to produce leaves from the crown? Or could te rot, the cinnamon or a combination thereof have destroyed the "mechanism" for producing new leaves? I've never had a vanda with crown rot before, so I have no idea where to go from here.

And FYI, the vanda is otherwise in superb health: Loads of new roots, great colour on the leaves, making 2 spikes. So unless it's stress-flowering, I see no signs of stress.

Thanks for any input!

It really depends whether or not the apical meristem was killed by the crown rot. It's usually not a good thing... :/

So I guess it's a case of wait and see?

p.s. you may like to get the excess cinnamon out of there at some stage; hydrogen peroxide or surgical spirits might be quite a good thing to use to flush it out; I'd recommend drying the excess with paper towel. Do this early on a warm day so the crown can definitely dry out.

---------- Post added at 10:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 AM ----------

Yes, aside from dissecting out the crown, which would invariably kill the plant, there isn't really any feasible way to check on it until a new leaf does (or does not) sprout.

Continue to give it good care and you will probably get a keiki on the stem. I got crown rot in a Renanthera but I kept watering/fertilizing and now have two keikis. It took about a year but it will survive now.

Brooke

pictures will help us advice you better.