Dendrobium lindleyi - leaves yellowing

[EllenGST]

Well, it turns out I made a couple of mistakes in my last post a few weeks ago.
1 - i have a Den lindleyi, not jenkinsi.
2 - the spike I thought was forming actually turned into a new leaf, and there's at least one other new growth starting - and I don't think there's any sign of a flower spike for this year. I don't mind waiting for the flowers, but am concerned about the general health of this plant. Some of the leaves that were on the plant when I purchased it are turning yellow - starting at the tip and progressing. One leaf turned completely yellow and dropped.

i don't know whether this is natural aging and attrition, disease or culture. Any advice would be appreciated.

[ksriramkumar]

How does the roots look like?. it does look like a sunburn to me. how much sun does it get?

[Chris in Hamilton]

Could be too much sun as Sriram said. lindleyii want to have fairly shaded conditions this time of year. I'm wondering about water and fertilizer. You have new growth and perhaps in order to do that the plants resources are being drawn from the leaves. My lindleyii are all mounted but they are being watered daily and fertilized weekly. Your's is in a small clay pot and if the light is very bright may have to be watered every day as well.

[EllenGST]

I bought the plant in early May - and have not repotted it. It had a tiny bit of yellowing when I purchased it and that has progressed - one leaf dried up and dropped. The plant is in a room that is bright, but it is not in direct sun - it's segregated from my other plants, and sitting on a table - shaded by an overhanging deck. If this were outdoors, I would call it bright shade. I do think it needs to be repotted - there were pbs growing inside the pot - I added a few pieces of bark under the exisitng media to get those on the outside of the pot - was waiting to see a little root growth before repotting. It started putting out new growths about a month or so ago - last weekend roots were evident enough that I plan to repot this weekend.

Chris, I love the way these plants look when mounted, but when we're back and forth between 2 houses, daily watering is not going to happen. I''m questioning my sanity in getting back into orchids under these circumstances, but the bug bit me again, so I'm just trying to be careful in choosing what and how to grow.

[Chris in Hamilton]

Ain't no such animal as a sane orchid collector. I'd also re-pot now if it were mine.

[EllenGST]

Thanks, Chris! It's 'at the other house' - along with all my orchid potting media - so I'll repot this weekend. I'll send an updated photo, too - the one above is from about a month ago.

[JDT]

I would agree needs to be repotted!