I bought this from Botanica Ltd. at an orchid show on April 1st here in Spokane, WA. It is hard to say when this began but it did fairly well for maybe a month to a six weeks. Then it began dropping leaves. They would first begin to brown from the base and eventually fall off. I included a picture of the most recent leaf drop and they all looked like that. This has happened to probably about five leaves. The dried up root that is the uppermost root looked like that when I got it, the other one however is very green and actively growing at a pretty fast rate.

In terms of care it was being fertilized at half strength once a week with Jobes organic orchid fertilizer (6-1-1) and occasionally Grow More orchid fertilizer (20-10-20). This was done at the same time as watering. I would first wet the potting mix, let it sit a bit and then pour my fertilizer mixture through the potting mix. I also misted the roots about once a week. It was sitting in front of a west facing window.

I use past tense because I recently changed my regime for this and all my orchids in response to the issue at hand. I now have it in an indoor greenhouse I built myself, this was in an effort to raise the temperature and the humidity. For lighting I have a 36W full spectrum LED about 18" from the plant. I water four-six times a month but only do the half strength fertilizer half the time. I mist the roots as often as I remember, probably every other day.

After I began regime number two the leaf drop seemed to slow in frequency. The most recent drop was today and it has not dropped in over a month. I have done a lot of asking around and reading. The asking around got me to regime number two but clearly I have only slowed the problem. I have read a lot and I have a couple thoughts. I do not think it is the temperature, although fairly constant, it is usually around 75 F in the little greenhouse. It could be humidity, Spokane is considered nearly a desert and misting does not last long. Finally, I wonder if I am watering it enough.

My first question is what am I doing wrong? My second question is if it is too much too late and I am better off just moving on? I am pretty determined and somewhat attached to it so hopefully I can find an answer.