V.Pachara yellowing leaves
 

I'm a newbie orchid grower and have checked this site for my problem, but am still confused. I've had my Vanda (2 of them) for about 4-5 months and they were doing well with daily 10 min soaks and fertilizer every other week. One of them all of a sudden has yellowing leaves and base. What am I doing wrong with this little seedling? Appreciate any help..I don't want to loose this guy.

Given that it's shedding bottom leaves it's probably nothing to be too concerned about. From what I can see in the pics the plant looks reasonably healthy. My vandas tend to shed more leaves this time of year, and I believe it's due mostly to the cooler and dryer conditions of winter. Some questions:

-What are the temps you are growing it in?
-Temp of the water you're using?
-How much light are you giving it?

Temps are 74 day/67 night
Tepid water to soak
All day light with a little sun.

Sounds like you're doing everything about right. I fertilize more often, once a week this time of year and twice a week in the summer. Vandas are heavy feeders and generally do better with more fertilizer than most types of orchids. I also have found them to be very forgiving as long as they're kept warm, and given plenty of light and water.

I must respectfully disagree. Vanda seedlings should carry many more leaves than this, even younger ones than yours. They retain those tiny seedling leaves for years, until they are blooming size. It is not normal for them to drop leaves in the winter. With proper culture they continue growing leaves all year.

Those seem to be two photos of the same plant taken some time apart? Even when the plant had more leaves it was struggling. Now it is in trouble. In both photos, the leaves appear to be wrinkled and dessicated. The roots look worse in the second photo.

I think your problem is too little water. In a heated winter home, relative humidity is quite low. Vanda seedlings under these circumstances need soaking for more than 10 minutes each day to get enough water.

I have winter temperatures in your range. My house is in the 30%-40% relative humidity range. I have a number of Vanda seedlings in vases, bare-root. Your seedlings are essentially bare-root.

I have learned the hard way I must soak mine for 12-24 hours at a time. Then I let them dry out for 12-24 hours. I do this year round. If I don't soak them this long, this often, the leaves wrinkle and begin to fall off.

We have members here who grow their Vandas with the bottoms of the roots standing in water all the time. They change the water frequently. I have not been able to get this to work, so I do the soak-dry cycle.

I would recommend you increase your soaking time to 12 hours every day. You don't have to cover the crown; just make sure each root touches the water. Any part of root in contact with water will wick water to the remainder of the root.

The existing leaves may have been dessicated too long to recover completely. I think the plant in the photo might not make it. But with adequate watering new leaves will emerge and look healthy.

A second point is fertilizing. What fertilizer, and at what concentration, are you using?

Commercial growers in south Florida fertilize every fifth watering year round. This means every 2-5 days, since they water 1-2 times each day. They use very high amounts of fertilizer, and they use more on seedlings than on adult plants. Your temperatures aren't as high as theirs, so your plants will never grow as fast as theirs, but Vandas hardly grow at all with insufficient fertilizer. After a couple of good soaks, when your plants start to wake up and grow again, consider fertilizing every 5 days. Most Vanda seedlings would hardly grow with fertilizing every 2 weeks.

You can read more about Vanda seedlings here on Orchid Board. There is a Search function in the top menu bar.

Thanks, for correcting my misinformation. I've always lost lower leaves in the winter months and had starting thinking it was just normal. Looks like I need to revisit my own culture.

Thank you for all the info. The pics are of the same plant. I should have posted the healthy one that I purchased at the same time and is doing well...same care. I only soak 10 min/day and fertilize every other week. I use Schultz 20-20-15 as it says on the label. I will soak longer as you say to try to save. Some of the bottom roots look healthy, but not like the other Vanda I have. I'm really hoping I don't lose this plant! :(