My Monster Vanda - HELP - suddenly yellowing.

[Florida Realtor Paul]

Hi Everyone! Suddenly, my monster vanda is not looking too good. See the thread about the monster with broken crown for what she looked like a few weeks ago.

Nothing has changed in her care. She is enjoying the east side of my screened lanai, enjoying morning sun through screen until about 11 am or so. Gets sprayed with water 2-3 times a day, fertilized weekly.

Suddenly, in last two weeks, the mother plant has gotten sickly looking. IN the middle, her leaves are yellowing FAST, and dropping. The rest of her leaves are saggy, and leathery - limp!

Of the 5 keiki, the two in top are doing nothing - no roots, and look a bit leathery. The three keiki at the lower section- one is doing out standing! One is doing decent, and the third? That baby dropped most of its' leave except the spike leaves (they yellowed, and then fell off, BUT, there was still green at the base of leaf)

I do not know anything about orchid disease, and frankly, not even sure it is disease. It might be natural decline of mother plant with no crown. Going to do my best with pics....LOL

[Florida Realtor Paul]

Here are some pics.

[Florida Realtor Paul]

Here includes a location shot.

[Ben_in_North_FLA]

Concern 1
""It might be natural decline of mother plant with no crown."" No crown?, if plant rotting from top down?
Is crown mushy? is so you can either decapitate and keep keikis or put some fungicide in crown and then turn plant upside down for a couple of days and hope the rot has not progressed down the trunk of plant. If crown heals, do not water crown for a few months until several new leaves grow out and all is normal. Pls do water the roots.

Concern 2 , plant has the infamous Thai disease, Guignardia, needs at least topical fungicide regularly until new leaves are clean and old infected leaves are gone and then occasionally as a maintenance.

concern 3
No sunllight at top of mother plant ? its a vanda, it needs bright sunlight, lower keiki's get more light and seem to be doing better, how about lowering the plant so the top gets more light?

Concern 4, are there green(live) tips on any of the roots?

[Florida Realtor Paul]

Originally Posted by Ben_in_North_FLA

Concern 1
""It might be natural decline of mother plant with no crown."" No crown?, if plant rotting from top down?
Is crown mushy? is so you can either decapitate and keep keikis or put some fungicide in crown and then turn plant upside down for a couple of days and hope the rot has not progressed down the trunk of plant. If crown heals, do not water crown for a few months until several new leaves grow out and all is normal. Pls do water the roots.

Please re-read my post. The crown was broken off. Chewed off, more aptly. Not diseased. 2Keiki have sprouted at the top. The yellowing is in the middle of the Mother plant. Actually, now that you point it out, it is working its' way up the stem, not down. The leaves yellow up, and then fall off in a day or two

Originally Posted by Ben_in_North_FLA

Concern 2 , plant has the infamous Thai disease, Guignardia, needs at least topical fungicide regularly until new leaves are clean and old infected leaves are gone and then occasionally as a maintenance.

Have zero idea what this means or how to identify.

Originally Posted by Ben_in_North_FLA

concern 3
No sunllight at top of mother plant ? its a vanda, it needs bright sunlight, lower keiki's get more light and seem to be doing better, how about lowering the plant so the top gets more light?

The plant has access to morning sun until about 11am Sun does hit the top of the plant. But I will lower a bit to see what happens.

Originally Posted by Ben_in_North_FLA

Concern 4, are there green(live) tips on any of the roots?

There are new roots growing.

My main concern is mother plant plant is declining, and might be taking keikis with it. One keiki is doing very well, two seem to be struggling. 2 with zero roots.

Thanks for your input. I look forward to more discussion.

[Ben_in_North_FLA]

the thai disease is also known as
Phyllosticta Leaf Spot
recognized the spots right away...

Can you post a picture of the top from above, I missed the part where you mentioned crown was broken off...
would be interesting to see crown condition. If condition continue to worsen I would definitely remove the one good keiki and separate it from mother plant... just in case

[Florida Realtor Paul]

I've just taken these pics. Hope this helps.

[Florida Realtor Paul]

From top

[Ben_in_North_FLA]

Thanks for posting the top view. I noticed several leaves closing in and that is a direct result of lack of moisture intake. It could be because of lack of functional roots that go straight to trunk of the plant or because of a problem with the trunk in up taking moisture to the leaves.
If this was my plant, I would put it outside under a partial shade of some kind of tree or bush. Give the rain a chance to rinse it and water it several times per day until you see new leaves come from top and they should not be closed. Water plant and roots until all live roots are green, may take a few minutes of spray from hose.
Strap leaved vanda should have open leaves, they close them when trying to limit the moisture loss. Cut away any dead root and yellow leaves, feed plant lightly (1 TSP per gallon) until general health improves and new leaves are much improved.
In all I would
1 - increase light
2 - expose to rain
3 - remove yellow leaves
4 - remove dead roots
5 - increase moisture up take
6 - spray with topical fungicide
7 - feed lightly
8 - observe every couple of days

[Florida Realtor Paul]

Hey Ben,

It got ugly, fast. That yellowing accelerated towards the top at a fast clip.

I joined my local Orchid society...turns out my first meeting was last week. I brought my tablet with the pics. The consensus was surgery was needed....separating the healthiest Keikis from the mother plant, and discarding the rest. A few days later, I was showing property near the local orchid nursery, and showed them the pics - same conclusion.

Saturday, I geared up for the task, and did the required separations. Thankfully, there was no indication of Fusarium.

One Keiki has 4 good roots on it, nice and thick. The other is more or less a crap shot - just one 4 inch root, but fairly thick.

Both keikis were drenched in daconil. The only fungicide I could get on demand, and the only one I knew of..LOL

I'll post pics tomorrow. Thanks for your advise.