Help dying Beallara Patricia McCully 'Pacific Matriarch'

[geoffrey]

someone tell me what i am doing wrong. This is the only orchid that i have that i thought i was not killing and now its dying. its a Beallara Patricia McCully 'Pacific Matriarch'. The base of each leaf is extremely wrinkled and rough, the leaves have brown spots, turn yellow and then die. I changed the potting mix last week because i read it may have been too wet I did water it this week. I also changed from tap water to bottled water.

here are pictures of it. Please help me save this it really means a lot to me.


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[jsehorn]

When you repotted it, did you inspect the roots? Healthy roots will be plump and white or light brown. Roots that feel hollow are dead. To me it looks like this plant has either been grossly overwatered or grossly underwatered. Either issue produces the same results: dead roots and yellowing foliage.

This one looks pretty bad. Your best bet may be to unpot it and treat it as a backbulb division, if all the roots appear to be dead. Lay it on a tray of moist sphagnum until new roots strike. Once you see new roots, pot it in a medium to fine potting medium. Remember not to overpot. The pot size should be determined by the size of the root system, not the size of the plant. It might not be a bad idea to keep it in a plastic bag to increase humidity to minimize loss of moisture (just be sure to air it out every day to allow fresh air to enter the bag) until new roots strike. If there are no live roots, it doesn't matter what it is potted in. No living roots equals no water absorption.

That being said, how invested are you in this plant? Is it one of your favorites? Is it an uncommon hybrid that would be difficult to replace? It's going to take a lot of effort to revive this one, and you may be better off just chucking it and getting a new plant, unless you have some sort of sentimental attachment to it. If it was me, I'd toss it and start over, but you do what makes you happy.

[1joyceh]

In one of the pics, there is a wrikled leave. In my experience it shows underwatering, or bad roots...I am sure others will come along with more knowledge and give you more information, but as jsehorn said, check the roots.
beautiful flower

[geoffrey]

Jsehorn, I took your advice and checked out the roots. They were wet and a light brown, some were hollow some were not. I read on back bulbing and split two bulbs into plastic bags with ventilation holes in them. The bulbs are in moist sphagnum moss. I took the leafy portion and laid it in moist sphagnum hopefully it will dry out some and i can save that part.

I checked my other 4 orchids and cut off the dead roots and replaced the bark with sphagnum bark mix. I did notice little dark green roots growing off of those however they stay outside (i live in south florida). I will post the outcome with the 'Pacific Matriarch'.

If i post pics of my other plants can you tell me what you think? Thanks again for the advice.

[geoffrey]

Joyce,
I think i have been overwatering them. The roots were wet and brown. I hope i can save it, it had the best flowers on when it bloomed.

[orchids4me]

Ok now after repotting it it may not make new roots until it starts a new growth and roots will develop on the new growth. Just give it good Onc culture from the AOS culture sheets. Its not really able to take up water if there are no good roots left. So its survival instinct needs to kick in and that's with its energy reserves to kick out a new growth.water it but don't keep it wet as in soggy.
You may want to give it a bit lower light at first also (not Catt light levels) while it figures out if it wants to thrive (if it has enough energy stores left)
Good luck! Keep us posted

[jsehorn]

Yes, if you post pics I can do what I can to give you tips. I'm happy that my comments were useful to you.