Cattleya leaf turning black/brown - normal, or should I freak out?
 

I bought this orchid in December at Lowe's. I haven't repotted it at all, so I'm not sure what the media is, besides that there is gravel at the top. I've been watering approximately once a week.

Recently, I noticed the end of this leaf turning yellow, and then black/brown. Is this the normal way leaves die off from the pseudobulb, or is it a sign of a problem? Also, do the pseudobulbs seem excessively shriveled? I've been wondering if I should water more, or repot to see if the roots are OK. The plant does have two new growths forming, one of which you can see in the picture in front of the damaged leaf.

Thank you for your help!

It looks like it could be sunburn. But the pseudo bulb also looks a bit yellow so it may just be dying off. I would want to re-pot and know the condition of the roots. With new growths developing it might be a good time to do it now. I prefer to wait till new roots have just started but with a new plant in un-known media and root condition, I do it sooner rather than later. It could also be the reason the large pseudo bulb is dying off. Catts like to dry out in between watering and to have good drainage and open airy medium for the roots. If it doesn't have all of these, then root rot could be happening.

It's indoors in my living room and if anything it's been less sunny recently, so I'm worried it could be some sort of fungus?

I'll repot it and see what the roots are doing.

I would think it would do better outside in Honolulu, so long as it doesn't get too much sun and overheat. Do you have a balcony or a patio?

That's a very large pot for that size plant, especially if you don't know what it's growing in. I would worry it's staying too wet. I would unpot it now and be sure the roots are OK. Then I would repot into a pot just large enough to accommodate the current growths plus one or two more.

I guess freaking out was entirely correct...in retrospect, I should have repotted as soon as I got it, but I didn't know about such things then, and was scared to repot or otherwise mess with anything. :-(

There was a bunch of gravel in the pot, but the roots were around a lot of damp and degraded bark, and they were pretty much all dead or rotten. I cleaned away the old media and cut away a huge amount of roots, but I'm not sure if I was aggressive enough. There were only really two aerial roots that looked happy, but I removed anything squishy and/or black and left stuff that was just brown.

I repotted into "Better-Gro Special Orchid Potting Mix", which seems to be fir bark (large chunks), charcoal, and coarse perlite. I cleaned off some of the gravel and put it in the bottom of the new pot to take up space. I also watered under the sink to moisten the new bark.

Should I have any hope? Is there something else I should do? Does the repotting look OK? I would have tried "sphag-and-bag", but I didn't have any sphag, so I figured getting it out of the old media would at least be better than nothing.

Looks good; given the size of the plant, if you keep the culture good (i.e. Let the roots dry down before watering, good air flow & moderate light) you shouldn't have anything to worry about.


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The plant has very few roots. It will be unable to take up much water until it grows more roots. Make sure the bark is completely dry before watering again. You can use a wooden cooking skewer for this:

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ine-water.html

Root growth is promoted by high humidity. Treating the plant with a kelp solution weekly can also help form new roots.

The new growths will likely generate some roots soon, especially if you find some kelp (seaweed) for plants and use that in your water for a while. If you used the same pot after losing all those roots, I am afraid it will be too big and not dry out fast enough. You will need to carefully monitor. I would have gone with a smaller plastic pot with lots of holes and some medium bark. But the skewer method recommended by estacion seca works well, to tell when it is dry right thru. I use them a lot and it saved me killing orchids from root rot.

Everything is down to balance. If you MUST use moss or a dense medium, then you need to be on top of the watering 100%, and be sure that the system dries out before the roots suffocate. You need a small pot, etc etc etc.
OOr, you could plant it in a large pot in coarse bark, with no fine materials to block the air cavities. It is then impossible to over water or over pot. However it is possible to underwater, so it needs to be watered possibly more often.

It was originally in a larger plastic pot - I would have put it in something smaller than the new ceramic one, but didn't have anything handy, so I put stones in the bottom to try to reduce the volume. Hopefully with the coarser medium and the holes in the sides it will dry out OK, but I will definitely monitor with a skewer.

I'm a bit nervous about putting any of my plants outside because it tends to be very windy, unless I put them down in the back yard where I am afraid I will forget them. My living room ends in what used to be the lanai enclosed with jalousie windows (kept open) so it's quite light/breezy.