Haerella retrocalla advice
 

Purchased this orchid a week ago and removed it from the tiny terracotta pot it was in and mounted onto the cork bark of my terrarium. It was in bloom when i purchased it with 1 bud and another 2 forming.

I don't know how long it was in bloom for, and can't find how long the blooms last. The bud has started to change from green to yellow with maroon and looked like it would open soon, but now looks like it is dying, and the other 2 buds forming still look great, healthy green, and i think i see a new spike forming. My question is: is this to be expected as part of acclimation? My experience with other non-orchids makes me think it is waterlogged but the foliage dries relatively fast when watered and it has air circulation from a fan in the tank.

Attatched photos from when i bought it, with and without flash, and close ups of the bloom in question and the buds

More photos attached of the bud that was almost ready to open that now looks like it's dying and another of maybe a root? Maybe a spike?

The change in environment might, indeed, have caused that developing bud to blast. Fortunately, these can bloom sequentially on the same spike, and put out spikes whenever they feel like it (so you probably won't have to wait long for another). I have never grown it in a terrarium, so other will have to advise on that. I grown mine mounted, outside (southern California, frost free but winter cool) and it's fine. I don't think that these are particularly fussy about temperature, can grow warm, cool, anything in between.

Thanks for the responce roberta! I've been hovering around this tank and I'm probably over thinking it. There's only a 5 degree difference between day and night since we took out our air conditioning in the room, hoping to get 10 degree swings once it gets colder outside. Temps are fluxing between 73f and 78f. Humidity has been between 70% and 90%, mostly on the higher end since i added a moss slurry and I'm trying to get that going.

hey Transcendental,
I grow mine in a terrarium - that isn't your issue. The issue is your roots are drying out too much.

When I saw your first ppicture I was jeauloous of how good your bloom and roots look but then the next pictures show a steady decline with the flower wilting completely and the roots too dry

In the pot it had a load of live moss around it - this moss can be a really useful indication on the growing conditions cause if the moss dries up - the orchid will soon follow. The moss also provides a very humid environment around the roots.

So anyway your humidity is in the right range so the only other reason for your roots drying out that much is that they have been exposed to a too high air flow. It is a tiny plant, it hardly needs any ventilation so either reduce the ventilation, stick it in a small vase to shelter it or add some live moss around the roots like it had. I would not recommend spagnum but live moss is great.

At 70-90% humidity, hard to believe that roots are drying out too much. Mine dry out totally during the course of the day (usually within a couple of hours of getting watered) , get whatever humidity Mother Nature decides to provide. By mid-day, maybe 50% on a good day, 10% on a bad one. There's also hardly any moss - there was a bit of sphag that it came with to get it established, but now the roots have totally escaped the pad of moss, and are wrapped around the mount. Any shock can cause buds to blast, but this is a tough little orchid. It has been growing for me outside (including 2 winters and 2 summers) for a full two years and is thriving. The one thing I found about these (having killed a couple) is that they do like good water. Where I live, that means RO or distilled. In places with decent (below 100 ppm TDS) water, that's less important. One learns from one's mistakes...

Shadowmagic, how long have you been growing yours?

It's not uncommon for buds to blast on newly received plants, and my Haraella did the same when I got it. Best course of action now is probably to wait and see what that last bud does, and if it also blasts then you can reassess the growing conditions.

Roberta, that's interesting to know about water quality! I killed several back when I still lived in France, and thr water was rather hard with high TDS. I got a new one in the spring which is doing great, and my tap water here is so pure than I can use MSU fert for pure water.

The roots are resting on a pad of sphagnum which is pretty consistently damp but I'll make sure to check to make sure it actually is and not just looks damp. I have a moisture meter i can use to check. Ive had to watch how i water that area since i put an aerangis next to it that developed some black spots on it's leaves and they like to dry out a bit between watering. I treated the spots with hydrogen peroxide and pretty sure i put a stop to their spreading but I'm monitoring that really closely. I have a bulbophyllum in there too and one of the bulbs looks a bit shriveled so i do think not enough water might be an issue and will probably increase and continue to monitor everything

I am using distilled water when spraying and just ordered some kelpmax and k-lite fert which was recommended on this site. We have very hard water where i live.

Bulbophyllums do tend to like to stay damp. Haraella and Aerangis need to dry out between waterings. So what you may want to do is to remove the moss from the Aerangis and Haraella, but keep moss around the roots of the Bulbo. That way, the same watering regimen can have the desired effect on all... the ones that want to dry out can dry out, the ones that want to stay wetter stay wetter. (That's how I manage a yard full of orchids with widely-varied water needs... by tweaking the media and pot/basket/mount, everybody in an area gets watered the same, overhead sprinklers)
Oh, and watch that peroxide... it may kill algae, mold and other bad stuff in the "substrate" but keep it off the roots - it damages those microscopic hairs that growing root tips have. Physan is gentler, but if you're getting a lot of mold, etc. the environment is too wet - treat the cause and the symptoms will take care of themselves.

---------- Post added at 01:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:09 PM ----------

Evidence sure points to water...the only thing that changed between the fatalities and the successful one was that I put in an RO system. (Very expensive... the unit was cheap but now I have to re-buy the orchids that I killed that I really thought should do well. :biggrin: My success rate has definitely improved)

I spot applied it with a q-tip to the top side of the leaves. The spots were there when i bought it and a 3 out of 4 leaves were a bit wrinkled but it was the best looking aerangis in the lot. The spots spread a bit the first 2 days and thats when i spot treated the spots and since mounting it the leaves are now plump and no signs of wrinkling. It and the bulbo are the closest to the fan so air flow is helping keep the foliage on the aerangis and the crown on the bulbo dry (the bulbo is upright, the aerangis and haraella are mounted upside down