Maxillaria tenufolia problems
 

I believe I’m killing my bulletproof orchid....

I repotted it after purchase this summer into coarse bark / sphagnum. Keeping it outside in the Georgia shade, with an hour or so of late morning sun, watering about very other day.

P bulbs are shriveling, and the top half of this one turned brown. I pulled two leaves out of the top of it before removal. Any ideas?

Ridley

I'd guess bad roots. You might want to unpot it and check.

After any repot job, the plant has to grow roots that are "tuned" to that environment. The old roots will likely start to fail. The rate of failure is determined by the degree of difference between old and new in-pot conditions. The only exception I can think of is when repotting a plant already in semi-hydro culture, as the old and new conditions are identical.

If I have guessed correctly, a few waterings with KelpMax solution will likely help.

Thanks as always for your help ray, I just put my order in.

Ah yes, tenuifolia. I have a couple of these but have never been able to get them to flower.

Max ten is a water hog in the growing season, so the other possibility is that coarse bark, even with sphagnum mixed in, is too dry for it. I have mine in a medium-fine sized bark, and often leave some water in its saucer in the summer. I know other people who have tested pure bark and pure sphagnum, with the plant doing far better in the sphagnum because of the near constant moisture.
All that to say that I agree that you should check the roots, and what you find will guide you.

Good point, Camille.

I had a large one I split into two, repotting one in medium bark, as it had been, and the other into S/H culture.

After about 6 months of growth, the "bark" one was typically rangy, with rhizomes spreading all around, while the S/H one was very compact, looking more like a well-groomed mum.

Weeeeeellll, I had repotted it originally into pure sphagnum. It was staying moist for 5-6 days and I began to get paranoid about it being too wet, especially when I would need to move it indoors for the fall and winter.

The pseudobulbs have plumped back up, and they just god their first dose of rays seaweed extract I’m still losing leaves, but happy to see other good indicators