Droopy looking Paphiopedilum (with weird bumps)
 

I'm well aware that my office is not the best growing environment but it gets boring in here so I bring them in anyway....:yawn:
Here is my NOID Paphiopedilum about two years after I purchased it....it's been in here with me M-F 8-5 the whole time.
I successfully rebloomed it here (I know right?!?!) in this dreary place once...since then it's been on a leaf growing kick...
Light: I am not too important so my office is an interior one with a window to the hallway...but across the hall is an office with lots of east windows so "some" light gets to him.
Now it's starting to look a bit droopy and started growing odd bump things...
Pics attached of:
-whole plant (getting pretty tall)
-sad yellowing leaf
-droopy depressed lower leaves
-borderline creepy bumps growing on it

Thoughts??!?!!

and here he is when I bought him....so you can see how much the leaves have grown....

Is not getting enough light. That is a new growth stretching for light, the bumps are (or would have been) roots.

Have a desk lamp?

That's exactly what happened to a division of my paph that was given to a friend.
She put the poor thing in the dark corner of the living room, and it grew like a bean sprout.

She was happy to report to me that it is "growing" so well. I had nothing to say. lol

Poor guy!!! He's headed home with me tonight....hopefully I haven't ruined him.

Will it spike from way up there? Or start a new clump of leaves?

Pls help me understand this: seeing she needed important info re growing the thing....perfectly normal, after all, all of life is about learning, sharing....and, given what you know, why wouldn't you have just offered that info?:help:

Aren't we all in this together as colleagues, and isn't that the happy thing?

Maybe. It isn't really a happy way for it to grow. I would probably cut that growth up and pot it down as deeply as possible (up to that top root node). Perhaps in sphagnum moss for a few months. See if those roots actually grow, and then pot it up normally.

I agree, and that--not really a happy way--- was beautifully put.:bowing

This is pretty common growth pattern for some Maudiae-type Paphs in low light or crowded moist conditions. New growth will be normal if you get it back into more reaonable light etc.

But DO NOT cut it. The plant needs the support of that tall spindly growth to have a chance of producing a healthy new growth in better conditions. After you have a couple mature new fans of leaves you can try cutting it and rooting it.

I agree, it needs more light. I have never seen a Paph in this condition before. Very interesting.

The desk lamp idea could work nicely. If not, take it home and put it in a window, and when it decides to bloom again, bring it back to the office. When the bloom fades, home to the window once more. If you get a few orchids, you can have different ones in bloom in your office throughout the year :)

Bean sprout paph. lol

I bought a desk lamp for my collection of orchids, I got this one here:

Sunlight Desk Lamp

No idea if this is the light they need, but it looks "officey" and I just tilt the head of the lamp down so it doesn't shine into people's faces. I even hooked it up to an automatic timer so it turns off when the sun is up after I leave work and then it turns on when the sun rises before I get there.

My suggestion would be to leave it there and just get a desk lamp for it, orchids do what they want to do.

I received a couple of seedlings with that growth pattern last fall. After I got them into the greenhouse, they stopped stretching. Now I am waiting to se where the new growths will start, so I can repot them at the correct depth for the new growths.

Okay, it's been home for about 6 months now...getting plenty of indirect sun and it (and its small paph friend) are both looking sad and droopy again!!!

What have I done:(

The horribly yellow leaf is burnt, meaning too much sun right? But if it's too much sun (which it's ONLY indirect, but a lot) why are the others laying there like limp floppy fish....

Will I ever get a hang of this or am I doomed to kill everything I bring home???

Wow~ Your bean sprout paph is still growing like a...corn stalk! lol

The other guy, well, to me that yellowing is not due to too much light.
It is just slowly dying.
Older growths usually stick around for a number of years before turning yellow/brown and then dying, although some paphs terminate the older growth sooner than others.
I do see that there is a new growth going, so continue to care for it. Some paphs just maintain one growth.

I see that it needs to be repotted though. The potting mix looks very bad and some of the roots look not so great either.
I recommend repotting. Also, when you do, take a good look at the roots. If you see even one healthy long root, then no need to worry yet.

Also, did you ever fertilize this plant?
I read that plants can terminate sooner than they should when they don't get enough K.

Just some thoughts.

Would now be an okay time to switch it over to LECA? I'm slowly moving all my orchids over (unless that's a bad idea....)

Fertilizer.....I hate to admit it but no....best I've done is some plant food foam from Home Depot once or twice.....

I know I need to be better about the additional chemicals but it just seems like rocket science!!!

I would recommend against LECA for these paphs.
Orchiata or CHC (coconut husk chips) mixed with LECA or lava rock, these are the most commonly used mix for paphs and for good reasons. ;)