Before you say “Just give it some fertilizer”, please look at my post about that plant before.

It started flowering a few weeks ago, and the roots are growing back very healthy.
I think those two factors are what contributed to the plant consuming itself.

I already cut off the flower spike, but I fear this isn’t enough.

There’s a shit load of fertilizer in the substrate now too. I grow it hydroponically, and started with an EC of just 1 mS, because that’s what’s recommended for orchids, but I quickly realised that this isn’t enough, and increased it to 1,5-2 mS. Right now it sits at about 2-2,5 mS, which is objectively on the higher side for other plants, but very high for orchids from what I know.
But on the other hand… it needs to grow a lot of plant matter.

The problem is, that there are probably not enough roots to support this growth, and the nutrient uptake is limited because of that.

Still, I don’t want to loose the leafs. Would foliar fertilizing help? Or is it too late?

Here are root pictures my other two orchids that I rescued too at the same time. They don’t show signs of a deficiency, but also regenerated a lot of roots. Maybe this helps?

  • Guenther_Amanita 🍄@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    0·
    3 days ago

    Thanks!

    It looks quite healthy but the transition from hydro to not-hydro (geoponics, i guess?) will trigger a lot of physiological changes and internal reshuffling of nutrients. It’s inevitable.

    If you click on the post I linked, you see that the plant barely had any roots left, because they were completely mush when I bought it.

    The substrate you meant is called “LECA” (expanded clay balls), which wick up the hydroponic nutrient solution. It’s just another form of passive hydroponics :)