What can I do to help this orchid? I don’t know what kind it is. I refreshed its soil in the summer because my plants had a bad case Of fungus gnats and since then it’s been sad. It’s my fiancé’s and I feel bad killing it ☹️ I am pretty good at keeping all 30 other plants I own alive, just not this one! How do I know if I am under watering or over watering? Same pot as before Bright indirect light Orchid soil I don’t see any sign of pest
The plant looks dehydrated (wrinkled leaves and roots) so I’m thinking water frequency and media. When you water do you soak the pot or top water? I like to soak for 10-15 min when the roots dry out. Dry roots look silvery (like your aerial roots). Wet roots are green. When you say orchid soil, do you mean a mix of peat, perlite and bark? I personally have not had any luck using that with my orchids. I use all bark or bark with some sphagnum if the plant wants more moisture. When your repotted, what did the roots look like that were in the media? Healthy roots are silver, green to pale yellow and firm. Brown or black, papery or mushy are dead. If it were my plant, I would take it out of the pot to look at the roots. I am concerned the media has held on to too much water and subsequently drowned the roots. Remove all the dead and dying roots. Size the pot so that the roots including the aerials fit snuggly in the pot. A clear orchid pot with ventilation is always helpful. And I would use a 50/50 bark/sphagnum mix. Use less sphagnum if you are heavy with the water. The most critical thing is to water only when the roots are dry = silver. Depending your conditions (humidity, light, air movement, etc), it can be anywhere from one to two weeks. Good luck!
7 likes THANK YOU so much for your clear detailed advice! The aerial roots looked better than they do in the picture. I did trim off any of the dead ones when I repotted a few months ago. The soil is bark and perlite. No, I do not dunk it but that is what I will do! Thank you so much. 😊
2 likesGet a water bottle and spritz the roots every other day
1 like Thanks!!
1 likeThis looks very dry, I’ve had good luck with adding sphagnum moss into my orchid bark mix to hold onto water a little bit longer
1 like Thank you everyone! Orchid actually looks happier now that I have followed your advice 😍
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