Fusarium in Vanda

[Longroots]

Is this Fusarium on my Vanda.

I've had it over 2 years and it's always been on a downward slope. I decided to remove it from its previous setup and just have it on its aquarium wood and dunk it every day. It started to lose some base leaves and they yellowed from the base and it slowly spread to the leaf tip. The roots have cracked in many areas and I assumed this was because of the previous poor watering schedule. Then I saw a small part at the stem I cod cut into without removing roots and found a very thick red ring (the first image). This was very woody. I also have 2 root tips that have blackened and rotted. All leaves have some black oval spots at the base that have started yellowing. However, the yellowing seems to have halted since adapting to the new setup.

It had a new growth in the crown that yellowed and rotted away after halting for about 6 months or longer. It also had a basal keiki that just went black and died. It's never flowered for me, but does have an old flower spike from when I first recieved it.

Thanks

Edit: Added the current hanging mount setup, and the previous potted setup attached to the same piece of wood. I shortly added a very small amount of sphagnum when it was in the pot as it dried very quickly.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

What are your day/night temperatures? Humidity? How long are you putting it into water each day? What kind of light is it getting?

This isn't how fusarium manifests in Vanda. Fusarium is highly unlikely outside a very hot, very humid growing area. With more information we can help.

Could you post photos of the whole plant including roots, and of leaves? The tip of the plant?

[Longroots]

I've now added more pictures. In the pot, it had the potential to get very humid within the pot. This is when the plant started to really decline, not when I removed it from the pot. It was watered almost every night gently in the pot. Now it's dunked for about 20 minutes in a bucket of water every day. Sometimes twice if I find it gets dry.

It's temperature when in the pot was typical U.K windowsil temperatures as it was in the windowsill. Now it's from around 23c daytime, and about 15 night time.

I haven't been fertalising really at all however. I have some rain mix on the way to use every watering.

[estación seca]

Your plant looks healthy. The leaf drop was probably from lack of water, but that's a guess. I don't think it has a disease. It is quite dark green, suggesting it could use more light. That's difficult in the UK in midwinter.

Many household Vanda growers find them easier to manage in a pot with very large medium, because it is hard to keep up with watering properly when bare root or mounted. People also grow them in vases. Use the Advanced Search feature in the top menu to search on Vanda Vase and username jcec1 .

[Longroots]

The leaf drop started pre-unpotting. I did pot it in leca, in a pot I used a diamond tipped drill bit on to really air the pot out, but the roots suffered more. I plan on getting some more lighting for my setup (any lighting advice would be appreciated that is affordable). This would be a lot easier to deal with if it was summer now as I have a spot in could take it outside for the day for light. The orchid is firmly attached to the wood, I can't really dettach it, despite the wire. I just have the wire to not damage the roots while it further attaches and help the attachment. Otherwise I'd attempt semi hydro as a repot.

If I chipped and shaved the wood away from the roots I may be able to dettach it. If you think this would be better I have enough leca to produce a good semi-hydro setup. It would get more natural light and I'm sure I could find a container of some sort to support the orchid. It would also quarantine it from other plants in case this is fusarium.

Thank you for your advice

[estación seca]

If you can keep up with the watering leave it as it is. Midwinter is the wrong time to repot warm loving plants. I would get lighting advice from people in the UK because availability will be different from the US.

Take some time to do reading. The plant looks healthy to me now.

[Longroots]

Even despite the thick red ring? If so the only place I can provide good light for it is under my new artificial light setup which is next to my healthy orchids. I have been reading extensively on lighting and I have 2 standard halogen bulbs and a red blue led grow light one the Vanda for about 14 hours a day. I am a uni student so money is a little tight. I can keep.up with the regular watering however. I'm also hoping it perks up with the rainmix fertalizer. I'll add it to the dunk bucket.

Can you think of why it started dropping and rotting old and new growth?

The new leaf and basal keiki started to die before taking it out of the sphagnum mount pot setup

[aliceinwl]

This time of year (winter) is tough on Vandas. I grow mine bare root and soak them overnight nightly, but I think the less than optimal temperatures make them more vulnerable to bacterial and fungal infections, especially if kept continually moist.

If you can get a Kelpmax or a similar product, Vandas seem to respond near instantaneously in terms of new root production. Otherwise, try to keep it warm, bright, and well watered.

[Orchid Whisperer]

I only grow a couple vandas, but indoors I've had the best luck keeping the roots happy by growing with the roots inside an old terracotta drainage tile. Happy that way outdoors too!

[Longroots]

I worry because the decline started far before this winter. It probably started early spring last year.

I've just added a new photo. The xylem are such deep purple in leaning to removing this plant. I've bought a few more plants recently and it scares me that they could all be for nothing.

Some of the roots were also black inside but still firm. The insides of the roots then crumbled like soil.