Sick Kefersteinia and Trichopilia
 

Hello All,
I have some problems with two orchids I recently acquired.

One is a Kefersteinia aurorae, the other is a Trichopilia ramonesis. Neither plant seems to be happy with me but Kefer seems particularly precarious.

As pictured on the Kefer, the leaves are yellowing, there are growths from which the leaves dropped, and there is an advancing brown section on the leaf tips. I have been caring for it like something between a zygopetalums and a masdevalia.

In the past month, many leafs have fallen off halfway down the plant like a sick miltoniopsis does.

What is going wrong? I do know that the temps may have been a bit high for it lately.

The Trichopilia also has slightly similar problems. The bulbs are also a bit wrinkled, the leaves are becoming yellowish, some leaves have dropped, and some of the old bulbs are becoming brownish and non-firm. What is the problem with this orchid?

None of these plants are common and I would love to make them thrive and am very worried about losing either of them.

P.S: Sorry about the poor picture quality and the presence of my hand & foot in the picture.

temps are quite important.

I'd ditch the spagnum moss.

Otherwise as long as you are treating them like others that do well they should pick up too. I am nursing a rescue at the moment and although I was happy I got it way reduced I am not sure I can save it now lol.

and the ironic thing is it is one I was looking for for ages - if it dies I am going to kick myself I didn't pick a healthy one.

I don't know, they look so dry?! Sphagnum moss is OK as long as it has plenty of fluff and air movement (use pots with lots of holes) I wouldn't change their medium while they're sick.

I'll tell you what, when I got some ultrasonic humidifiers, and tented my shelf unit (with plenty of air circulation with small fans) and kept my humidity in the 80% range, all my plants perked up like crazy. As long as there is air movement, and warmth, they will totally love it.

It's ugly, but the difference between ~50% humidity and 80%+ is night and day, so I don't mind the tenting. They'll be going in a greenhouse as soon as I get it finished, LOL (needs to be finished already!!!

i just did some research and i found out a couple things: the Kefersteinia aurorae naturally grows in cloud forests (rainforests but rainier!). they loooove humidity. keep temps cool to medium warm. lighting: low to medium. roots should never dry out.

i couldn't find an article on Trichopilia ramonensis, but i found one on its relative, Trichopilia suavis. turns out T. ramonensis is a natural hybrid between T. suavis and T. marginata (so the proper designation would be
Trichopilia x ramonensis). the suavis needs 85 to 90% humidity with strong air movement. watering should be slightly reduced during the winter but that's about it. trichopilia is sensitive to light - it grows in deep canyons. higher light seems to burn the leaves and doesn't improve flowering.

tl;dr: both plants need may be suffering from lack of humidity and/or too much light. bump up the humidity to 80-ish (or something high) and keep plants in filtered/dappled or low light.

:)

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if the sphagnum's old, replace it. but with such moisture-loving plants, i think sphagnum is optimal. unless you're an extreme over-waterer, i don't think you should switch to bark. :)