I'm in the US, central New York to be specific. I usually keep my plants in a humidity chamber with grow lights and which I maintain around 50-60% humidity. I took this one out recently because I was worried it has something contagious. Should I not have?

I would give it a 30 minute soak in water (with the media) and see if any roots turn green and plump up.

How long have you had this plant? What did it look like when you got it? Why did you trim the leaves? How often do you water it and how? How much time under the grow lights does it get each day? What temp range does this plant grow in?

We need more info. I personally don't see a lot of evidence of disease, but I'm not an expert at diseased plants. To me the plant looks severely dehydrated.

Do you have a sunny window? Your plant looks stressed and something is wrong culturally. Are you watering when dry?

The roots are growing out of the pot which is sometimes a clue they don't like what the plant is potted in. See if you can keep the plant going through winter in a sunny window and repot in Spring. If you do not have a sunny window, I would buy a cheap floor lamp, put some CFL's (bulbs) in the lamp and do not put the plant in the humidity chamber. It is possible that is the problem. Orchids need good air flow and many times being in a chamber does not offer that.

These plants can grow well without a lot of humidity. I grew many orchids in NY with hardly any humidity over winter. They bloomed and grew well.

Jane

Thank you for the advice arthurm, suzabanana, and jane!!

suzabanana - I have the lights on in my chamber for 14 hrs per day. I haven't tracked it but my guess would be the temperature ranges from probably mid-60s to mid-70s. I've had this plant for around 4 years and it's bloomed several times for me. It's been growing under similar conditions the entire time and in the same conditions (same chamber/location/lights) for at least 3 years. It looked great until not too long ago (this summer?) when the leaves started turning brown (which is why I cut them) and looking unhappy.

jane - The window is a large east facing window that gets quite a bit of morning light. I have a small fan in the chamber which runs 15 min on/15 min off when the lights are on. Is this enough to help with the airflow issue?

Have you been able to soak the plant? Giving it time to rehydrate should tell you if there are any viable roots left. I wouldn't do any more things to the plant right now since you've already repotted, applied anti-fungals and cut leaves off. Personally, I'd not cut leaves off unless I had confirmed disease AND used sterile equipment.

As a last resort you could try to sphag and bag http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1554774/to-sphag-and-bag-or-not-to-sphag-and-bag?n=10

Yes, I would agree its enough air flow. If it has grown well for you for 3 years, then I would repot it in Spring. It doesn't look like disease, it looks like its declining. Not sure why.

I would take it out of the chamber and sit it against the window. Water only when dry. Repot in Spring. You have some nice roots and I suspect it is not happy with the potting medium. Use a drying mix. Maybe larger bark, clay pot. The plant looks terribly dehydrated. Don't overwater as you might be having root problems inside the pot which is why the new roots are moving outside.

Put it in the window.

Jane

It is a bit hard to give advice when you have only visited the frozen North in a Tourist Bus....But I can remember arriving in New York in Autumn and it was very humid. Then a cold front went through and it was cooler and quite pleasant.

"The Chamber"! I love that but is it really necessary inside the average Frozen North home. Surely the houses are better built than here to exclude draughts in winter?

What happens to polar air in winter? Doesn't the normal processes of cooking, showering, breathing add water to the air and push the humidity towards say 50%.

Anyway, Cattleyas are much more tolerant of low humidity levels than say a Phalaenopsis. A few days ago the Temp in the shade-house peaked at 41C. humidity 11%. As far as I can see the Cattleyas in there are fine. Although these sorts of events only occur a few times a year, provided the shading is adequate the plants are fine.

During winter when the arid westerly winds blow humidity levels are quite low and orchids such as Cattleyas and Cymbidiums are fine "outside". daily average Temperature range 7 to 17C. Humidity during warmest part of the day 20 to 30%.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

suzabanana - I did give it a soak yesterday. There are some good roots but they're quite small and had been sitting somewhat above the bark. After the soak I used some of the wet bark to try to cover them up a bit more so maybe that will help the plant get some more water.

jane - Taking it out of the chamber will reduce the amount of light it gets. Is that okay?

arthurm - I agree the chamber probably isn't really necessary. I built it because one winter a plant which had a beautiful spike of flowers dropped them all in a couple of days. I wasn't sure if it was light, humidity or temp but the chamber, since I have lights in it, should increase all of those. Since then, most of my plants have seemed pretty happy in the chamber so I've kept it around. I even upgraded at one point a few years ago. I had the chamber over one set of shelves and built a larger one and doubled the size! My husband thinks I'm nuts. He's let me take over a nice big window in the front of the house though so he's been pretty tolerant of my crazy :-).

I grow a lot of cattleyas in Michigan and yours definitely looks dehydrated. Are you soaking all the outside roots when you water? I keep mine under lights in the winter and in the summer sit them outside in protected bright shade.

I understand that you have recently repotted this orchid. If it were me I would have used an orchid pot that has lots of holes in the sides and bottom for air. Or drill lots of hole in the sides to allow the potting mixture to dry out more rapidly.

After unpotting this orchid I'd soak the whole plant especially the roots 12-24 hours. This is to get more flexibility into the roots. With long roots like that I guide the roots into the bottom of the pot then twirl either the plant or the pot to get the roots kind of wrapping around themself and lower the plant into the pot. I kind of think of dry spaghetti being able to go into a pot. You want to twirl them into the pot and not bend them severely. Easy to show and hard to put in writing for me, sorry.

With the roots inside of the pot you can water this plant every 5-7 days in the winter to allow the roots to dry out between watering. Don't expect the old part of the plant to recover much. But with any luck the new growth will do better for you.

By the way after the plant has flowered I like to snip off the dry stem between the leaves.

Thanks mary and jbraun!

mary - I try to get the roots wet when I water but I guess it must not be doing the trick. Would misting it every few days help?

jbraun - since I just repotted it, I should probably not disturb it again, correct? Maybe I can try to drill holes in the pot to help with air circulation?

You can wet the air roots out side the plant in-between regular waterings, especially since it does appear so dry. Mine I just totally soak when I water once a week. Do the roots change color when wet, they should become greener if they are soaking up the water.

I don't see much change in most of the roots when I water. Some of the small roots may be okay but I don't know if that's enough to sustain the plant.

You all are so knowledgeable and helpful, I have another sick plant question for the experts ;-)! I got this one over the summer and it seemed happy for a while. Recently (maybe a month ago?) the leaves started turning yellow. This week I noticed that it's going downhill really quickly. Some of the leaves are now completely yellow with some brown on them. Any thoughts??

Thanks in advance!!

-Meisha