Can you tell me what I should do about this orchid leaf? The new top leaf in the picture has stopped growing up but is squeezing out a split in the lower leaf.
Thank you for your help.
Neil
PS. I love the pictures everyone posts here.
I need your help
I would say the reason for the crinkled leaf is that the roots have rotted. The material in the pot looks broken down. There are several new root starts apparent in picture so this would be an excellent time to remove old rotten roots and repot in new medium.
There is nothing can be done for the crinkled leaf, it will stay like that until it drops off due to natural aging.
Ken
Thanks. Actually most of the green roots are on the other side of the pot and several newer shorter ones are growing underneath what you can see in the picture. But it does need new potting medium.
Thanks
Not to belittle your concerns, Neil, but after spending lots of time at orchid nurseries, I've come to the conclusion that orchids are pretty messy-looking plants or at least the specimen sized ones are. Everything that has ever happened to them- water, light, temps- shows somewhere on the plant. A lot like trees. I always groom them and try to make them more aesthetic but I know that's not their goal! They want to live, live, live (in a scrappy kinda way).
I have a similar thing happening with my Miltonidium Pupukea Sunset ‘Super Nova’. New growth is squeezing out the side of one of the growths. Weird. I just repotted it last July and the plant looks relatively healthy.
Joanne
Okay, this is cool (to me, LOL)...it's nearly a month later, and I've realized from looking closely at my plant that the pseubo bulbs do seem to emerge from a split in the side of a leaf. But what I'm really excited about, is I think a spike has emerged too. :) What do you think?
Oh yes indeedy!
Doin' the happy dance here! Ü
Congrats Joanne!
I recently showed the pictures to the two largest growers in Kauai. They basically agreed with Boojum. One suggested cutting the leaf that the new growth was trying to squeeze through and the other said just let it do its thing and leave it alone.
So far I'm just leaving it alone.
Neil
This message was edited Feb 22, 2008 12:45 PM
How nice that they agreed with my humble opinion-I've only been seriously into orchids for 3 years. Thanks, Neil.
Okay, now I must 'fess up that I sort of helped my orchid out a bit and opened up the slit in the leaf a bit further to help the new growth come through... :)
I'm trying to leave it alone now, even though it looks to me like another spike, or more of the same spike is still trying to emerge from behind the "offending" leaf. Not touching, not touching, not touching...
Wierd Jo, but a spike is a spike! I sometimes have to 'help' my spikes too. As long as you don't have to remove too many offending leaves , it's OK.
An update...more of the spike emerging....
I know nothing about orchids, but here I am with 3. One i've had for more than 2 yrs. & it's never flowered. It's a Dendrobium,Sea Mary Snow King. Recently it dropped all it's leaves except 2. They look pretty pale. Is there any hope for this plant? The 2nd one lost all its leaves. I don't dare look in the pot to see if there are any roots. Probably not!The 3rd one is the healthiest of all. It has a lot of green leaves that don't seem to be growing.The tag says:T4342 SLC. HSIN BUU LADY Y.T PURPLE 10/24/06. Can anyone tell me what that all means? Sure would appreciate some help here. Thanks!!
Slc.=Sophronitis +Laelia+Calleya. Many Cattleya Alliance hybrids are Slcs. Also Lc. The rest is the name of the cultivar. Typically written Slc. Hsin Buu Lady Y 'T Purple.' Or something like that (I'm guessing). Todd can explain more technically. Oh, Toddd....
You are indeed right Kathy...the hybird in question is Sophrolaeliocattleya (Slc.) Hsin Buu Lady. The "Y T Purple' is expect is referring to the colour of the flower...yellow tinted purple.
HHHHmmmm. Didn't know about the color designation!
That was just a guess! Maybe it is the clonal name, but the hybrid itself is the name I gave above.
Now that I know the name of number 3 I thank you so much. Of course I don't know what you are talking about,but I'm going to research it & then I'll know! Now how about the rest? If my cat eats this plant will she die? How often do I fertilize?What is the coldest temp. an orchid can take? What if I don't have a south facing window? The only thing I do know is not to water too often. Am I dumb or what? I'm determined to grow orchids with a little help from y'all. Thanks so much!!
Joanne, I am curious about the spots (brown and brown with translucent green areas around them) on the leaves of your plant. Is their size and number increasing or stable, staying pretty much the way they are now?
It looks like you have multiple spikes coming out at all angles.
Ken
Ken,
I think there are more of them than say, a couple of months ago. I've been wondering if it's a fungus or bacterial problem. What do you think?
I had similar looking spots develop on many of my orchids last summer which turned out to be a bacterial rot.
Ken
Thanks Ken; any tips as to what, if anything, I might be able to do. Just my luck that the first orchid to re-spike for me has some dread disease. :(
I might drag it with me to Paramount Orchids this weekend and get them to have a look. Our Orchid Society's auction is Monday night and I'm going to pick up a plant at Paramount to donate to the auction...(good excuse to go visit an orchid grower, eh? My DH just rolled his eyes; he knows me too well. LOL).
I used a product called Chemprocide, which is similar to Physan 20 (not always available in Canada) or its equivalent RD20 which is licensed in Canada. The active ingredient is the same as used in Febreze antibacterial.
Ken
Thanks Ken. Someone was selling Physan at the Edmonton Orchid show, should have picked some up.
Here's my Miltonidium Pupukea Sunset ‘Super Nova’ in bloom. It smells heavenly; one of those "oh, I remember that scent - yum!" kind of fragrances.
I'm hoping the fungus issue doesn't get too bad while the plant is blooming; I'm holding off treating it until it's done.
