Hi
I've been
trying to sustain some orchids for a couple of years now and joined this forum to gain some much needed knowledge. Thank you so much for what I have learned already. I even read the Phal abuse stops here thread right the way through and I'm now up to page 73 on Beginners discussion but I'm getting desperate for an answer to my troubles!
I'm growing my orchids (6 NOID phals and 1 NOID Vanda) indoors on the island of Fuerteventura, one of the Spanish Canary Islands off of the West Coast of Africa.
We have a challenging climate: near constant strong winds with high humidity but also a high salt content, only one or two days of rain a year, daytime temps between 15C and 40C, night-time between 10C and 25C, very high UV levels.
Add to this our tap water is desalinated and has a high dissolved mineral content but my orchids all get water that has then been filtered through a 4 stage carbon filter (not RO).
My first few orchids stayed in their original medium (tightly packed spag) until I read 'the abuse stops here', they are now in large bark chips and my newer ones have been repotted within hours of being purchased. All are in their original clear plastic pots with lots of drainage holes. I stand these inside a larger ceramic pot (at least 1" clearance all round) for stability.
I water them as required when the roots look silver rather than green and have had very few dead roots since the original repots, rather I have lots of fresh, strong root growth. I fill the outer pots with tepid filtered water to the tops of the clear plastic pots, leave to stand for 20-30 minutes and then drain well. The orchids all have their own water - I don't share it.
I fertilise weakly, fortnightly (approx. 1/4 strength).
I give the plants as much light as I can in a North facing window (they get a short time of direct early morning sun) and the entire West wall is glass patio doors so the room stays pretty bright. No curtains at all. I've positioned the plants so they don't get the sun from the West in the late afternoon as the sun is scorching at that point. Lots of air movement through the room all day. Very humid at night (70) and I dry my washing in there during the day to bring the humidity up from 20/30 to around 50.
So my problem is that the new leaves that are growing at the moment are all showing signs of damage and/or are drying out. Previous leaves have been fine. This is happening on all 6 of my Phals. I haven't had any accidents with them so I don't think it is mechanical damage. Any ideas what is going on? Also had a bud blast around the time I noticed the first poorly new leaves.
Sorry if I've gone on a bit but I wanted to try to describe my growing conditions as clearly as possible. Fingers crossed that someone has an answer for me.
ps. my Vanda that is in a glass vase is fine at the moment.
I've added some pics to show what I'm faced with.
Phalaenopsis - leaves distorted/drying up
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