Top of Vanda fell off :(

[mmursuli]

idk because the leaves tend to grow toward the sunlight...

[thepurpleorange]

well that's a good idea about turning it upside down but my vanda is growing on a wooden post! so it's basically un-moveable. obviously did not consider this when I mounted it! lol

[Junebug]

I suspect your Vanda had an injury that caused the top portion to fall off. I had one that did the same thing. The plant looked o.k. and had a keiki when it was given to me, but it failed to grow. I started poking around to see what was wrong and the whole top fell off. When it did I could see that the stem had been cracked. The mother plant didn't have much of a root system to begin with and it declined rapidly after loosing it's top. I removed the keiki though, and after a year it's still growing strong.

[glengary54]

I agree with Junebug, when a plant develops crown rot, it take a while before it pushes out a keiki. Your plant was damaged in some way that was not obvious to you and to preserve itself it sent out a keiki. Treat your plant exactly as you have been and the keiki will be fine.

[thepurpleorange]

I have no idea really what caused the crown rot. I suspected stagnant water between the leaves since it has been raining a lot. I don't think it was damaged. But you're right, it went bad a long time ago. I had seen the keiki developing for weeks (without being sure of what it was) and when the top finally fell off, it looked as if it had rotted for a while and was just waiting to fall off.

thanks for all of your advice! As usual when I come to this board I feel a lot more confident in caring for my orchids!!