Looking for recommendations to help save my new plant.

Back story,
I had a friend purchase it at the Santa Barbara show about 2 weeks ago. She drove it home to Arizona. I picked it up that following Thursday night and it is not looking all that good. I have had it an entire week as of yesterday. It's severely dehydrated and yellowing at all the leaves. Has lost two bottom leaves and working on losing a third, I have also noticed black spotting. It's lost a lot of roots and I am praying for it to live.

I have it set up in a large West facing window, humidity between 50-80%. I water each morning by running it until roots are green and will sprits main larger roots if i see them silver but no later than mid afternoon. I have also cut the spike.

Any ideas? Should I damage more roots to remove the basket and check for fusarium? It just seems as though it's dehydrating more by the day.






Think it's a goner?

Except for some mild trauma due to being in transit, I would say "quit hovering", it looks fine to me ! A few spots aren't going to kill your Vanda. Keep on watering and fertilizing and hopefully it will spike again soon.

@Ursula. In trying. Lol. The yellow and losing leaves and roots is where I'm really concerned.

The bottom pics are when I got it, top are today.

Yellowing lower leaves may happen no matter what you do. Try to keep it happy and hope for the best.

@Mdntnmtgmy, just letting you know I corrected the title of your thread.

Hi, and I hope I can add my 2 cents worth to Ursula's good advice. Is it possible the plant got a little chilly before you received it? I"m not blaming your friend who did you a nice favor by bringing it home from California for you, but if she/he stopped over night and left the plant in the car, or wherever it was living before you got it, maybe it got too cold. That at least would explain the yellowing and dropping lower leaves.

In your dry Arizona climate, you're going to deal with having to water a Vanda very often. Do your best to keep it's surrounding area very humid - got a little humidifier? When our weather is "dry" here in Florida, I water mine twice, about 15 minutes apart. The first time the roots don't always turn completely green, and that outer layer on them is like a sponge so it takes time for the water to soak into the roots. So the second soaking really gets them well saturated and they stay green for a much longer time when I do this.

You might also want to check the pH of the water you're using. An aquarium test kit or a swimming pool test kit are good for doing this. If the water is too alkaline, it can cause a lot of problems including blocking the uptake of some nutrients. I know rain water is probably not an option where you are, but you can fill a sprayer with tap water and lower the pH by adding a couple of teaspoons of white vinegar then use that to spray your Vanda. I have to do this as my tap water is too high pH for my orchids.

Thanks Elaine!

@Elaine, I guess it Is always a possibility it got chilled. I know it's been between 60-80 almost 90's here, but not sure on Cali.

I have it in a bathroom with a closed door, run the shower in the morning and bring humidity up to 80% and if it drops below 55 I do it again so humidity is maintained higher in my dry conditions. I have also been watering a fee times a day if I see silver roots.

PH I have checked and it is around 6.5-7%.

Thank you for the info

I was thinking maybe heat stress. Heat stress, like from buying a plant, putting in your car and you crack the windows while you run into the store for 20 minutes figuring it will be just fine.
That car heats up so quickly and symptoms are an overall yellowing of the plant. But in a warm climate Vandas may need to be watered twice a day to keep up with the loss of moisture due to sunlight and heat. They need to be watered a lot, really soak them! Water other things nearby and then soak the Vandas again!