angraecum sesquipedale: questions re roots & yellowing leaves

[paris75008]

good morning all, ESP. anyone who grows or has experience with these babies. i've attached 4 pics to help things along.

(a) do you think the leaf yellowing (lowest 2 leaves on 1 fan, lowest leaf on the other) is natural ageing, as w/ phals? if not, what? (i bought her 6 wks ago, potted, and haven't fertilized.)

(b) comparing the 2 pics of leaf details, do you think the plant needs more watering? (i stick her into a bucket of lukewarm/tepid water for 10 min. daily.)

(c) the roots are inflexible and woody, though a few @ the top show a dark green suggesting activity. they don't look @ all like any pics on the internet--and i've researched for quite a few hours. thoughts/opinions?

(d) i grow my catts & oncidium bare root, and they're thriving/blooming w/ a daily 20 min morning shower, hence my thinking that this gal would take to going nekkid too, esp. as her type is reported to dislike root disruption. is my culture markedly different from mounting that she might be reacting badly?

thanks mucho for any thoughts and help.

graham

[Leafmite]

The roots of these do get woody and stiff but I think you have some roots there that are not very healthy. What you should do is give it a good soak then squeeze the brown roots to see if they are solid. Any that feel hollow are dead and you can remove those.

I bought one last spring and the roots were all bad so I removed them all, filled an eight-inch basket pot with large red lava rock and then staked the rootless sesquipedale firmly over the rock. The orchid went outside in a spot where I would not need to move it for the entire summer. I bought some plant seaweed additive from Amazon that had a high rating and used it weekly to encourage rooting. Soon enough, roots appeared, grew into the rock and all the way down to the bottom of the pot and the orchid is doing very well, now. Summer is the perfect time for nursing it (as long as the warmer temperatures start soon!).

These like heat, good light (they can take full sun if you slowly introduce them to it--but wait until the roots are healthy), high humidity around the roots (like a Vanda), plenty of water, plenty of air around the roots (all of Madagascar is breezy), and good quality of water (flush well so you don't get a build up of minerals, fertilizer or salts). They also seem to enjoy extra calcium.

My first of these was a tiny seedling that I grew for nearly eight years until my dog shredded it. The replacement was potted at the beginning of a very cold summer and didn't fare well so I was happy to finally find another...and am very happy to see it thriving.

Good luck!

[estación seca]

Graham, welcome!

This is a vigorous, constantly-growing plant when it's happy. The leaves are wrinkling because the roots can't supply enough water. I suspect most of those roots are dead. Try to give the plant as much humidity as you can to reduce transpiration through the leaves. The plant will remain wrinkled, and continue to drop leaves, until the roots and leaves are in balance.

You would prefer to achieve this balance by growing new roots, not losing leaves. Unfortunately these don't grow roots rapidly. You can speed the process a little by treating the plant with a kelp extract, as leafmite wrote. You can find such products at a nearby hydroponics shop, or online. I am happy with KelpMax from First Ray's. After a good soak, cut off the soft roots.

I am growing my A. sesquipedale seedling in semi-hydroponics. It one of the healthiest orchids in my collection, and it still has all the leaves it arrived with in June 2015. There is a forum here for semi-hydroponics.

But, it is not a good idea to move a sick plant into S/H. I would do as leafmite suggested, and soak your plant in a kelp solution weekly until new roots begin. Then cut back to monthly. Consider soaking your plant more than once a day, if you can, but be sure the leaves dry out well between soaks.

The warmer you can keep it, the more likely it will be to grow new roots. But it will be harder to keep the humidity high. Once the plant is healthy and growing well, it does fine in lower humidity.

[Leafmite]

I didn't lose leaves, either, as we had a very humid summer (typical where I live). I had rapid root growth and was able to remove all the stakes by autumn. If you anticipate losing the lower leaves, plant it lower in the pot so you can add more rock/medium where the leaves were to keep it more stable and less 'leggy'. These can get rather large and if all the mass is high, they can easily get knocked over (an advantage of using rock is that it helps prevent this).
Looking forward to seeing yours bloom someday!!!

PS. You are right that the Angraecums are not very fond of having their roots disturbed, especially once they reach maturity. However, I have found that by potting them up in dry medium and letting the roots remain dry for a few days, it gives the roots a chance to heal and removes the opportunity for fungus to invade. When you stake them, you want to make certain the orchid cannot wiggle in the pot, too. I prefer the rock and basket pots because I can pick the right size pot and won't have to pot them up again...or, in the case of the sesqupedale, I can just drop it into a larger basket pot someday and add some more chunks of rock.

[paris75008]

1. you guys are great. thanks for the detailed responses which i'll put into action this wknd. have a couple of deadlines which can't be put off.

2. this makes me think i should've stuck to what i knew: catts. kid u not, this has been pretty stressful.

3. will keep u apprised once i actually have something to report.

best.

[estación seca]

Don't give up. I also approached A. sesquipedale with trepidation after reading about it online. It has been an easy grower so far. I received a very healthy plant in a pot from Sunset Valley Orchids, but Fred does't have it listed now.

[paris75008]

hey, all. updating here.

1. ordered the kelp powder which came yesterday.

2. since having gotten board advice, have been soaking the plant's roots twice daily for 2 hours each, then leaving the plant 12-14 hours to dry before the next soak. the chlorosis is arrested, and the remaining (non-yellowed) leaves are starting to plump up again.

3. i cut away about 1/3 of the roots because they were dead. the process, however, was weird because both viable and dead roots were woody despite the soaking; the dead ones remained dark brown while the live ones turned green (though remained woody).

4. will begin soaking in kelp solution tomorrow and hope to have more good news to report in about a week.

again, thanks.

[Leafmite]

They do have woody roots as the roots need to be very strong to hold such a heavy orchid on a tree.

Good luck!

[paris75008]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

They do have woody roots as the roots need to be very strong to hold such a heavy orchid on a tree.

Good luck!

really?! am asking, not challenging: so the masses of, say, cattleya high up in the branches also have woody roots, not the gorgeous velamen covered tendrils of the plants i have?

i love how orchiding teaches me stuff on the fly.