Tim I'm no expert, but the leaf growing sideways to the right looks pretty nice. Make sure those roots get good drainage and airflow. If you haven't repotted the plant maybe it's a good idea to do so. I have about 7 orchids that I am re growing in bark and 2 that are in moss, The ones in Bark are growing new leaves and roots. I have posted pics on other posts, and the ones in moss are more recent since the flowers fell off and ironically a new spike is growing off a node (will upload pic on another post). I hope this helps.. Good luck..

Hi Tim, that new growth looks good and as Charles sais it should be repotted. If you soak the plant in a bucket of water for about an hour before you remove it from the existing pot, the roots will be soft and pliable to work with. Looks to me with all the roots on top it is either very pot bound or looking for a drier medium. I would agree bark is good (make sure the bark has been thoroughly soaked for days in fresh water changing it 3 times to remove all tannin before using it). When the plant is out the pot you can trim the roots off the old backbulbs with no leaves, then put into same size pot with the old bulbs against the side of the pot leaving space for the new growth to flourish and put down new roots. Good luck!

Thank you. It was repotted. Am I supposed to soak the bark as described for all repotting?

Any bark bought which has not been previously soaked should be soaked before use. If it still contains tannin, the roots hate this and don't go down as they should and will usually come out the surface and end up growing on the pot. If they don't come out, the plant will go backwards - ie each new growth will be smaller than the last and new roots will be scarce Always good to check when you buy bark what the status is. I fill a 20lt (about 4 gal) bucket 2/3rds full with bark, fill it with water and after 3 days I tip the bucket on its side whilst holding a sieve over the top and drain it. I repeat this 3 times over about 9 to 10 days. This quantity bark is good for about 8 to 10 x 200mm (8inch)pots. You can also add a cup of lime with the last water to help neutralise the bark. The ph of your medium and your water makes a huge difference to successfully growing your plants in most cases. Happy plants make growers happy! That is a pic of my shadehouse - you can see they look happy! Now all I need is to get rid of ants!!

Thank you. I repotted a bunch of plants without the soaking. What should I do now?
Also, I control my ant population with boric acid. Either peanut butter or sugar water.

If you have any bark left put it in a container and soak it for 2 to 3 days. If the water looks like weak tea after that then you need to repot. Soak enough bark, repot, recover the used bark and soak that too for next time. I add about 10% of 3 to 4mm stone or granite chip to the bark and about 10% what I think they call polyeurethane (that white foam stuff everything comes packaged in these days - I break it up into small chunks and add it all - even the tiny single little balls). The stone helps keep the roots cool and the mix open and likewise the foam stuff keeps the mix open giving space for roots to go down. This is not a requirement but helps a lot - even for plants with fine roots!
Also if your bark has a lot of fine stuff with it then sieve it first and keep the pieces of bark for repotting and use the fine stuff as mulch in the garden. It doesn't take many mins to sieve a bag of bark through about a 3mm sieve and is well worth it. I find it very worthwhile to check the internet for that species of plant and find out where it grows, what are the climatic conditions like, how much rainfall does it get, what sort of temperatures, does it grow on trees or on rocks near a stream or perhaps even in full sun. That info will give you a good idea of where to grow the plant to suit the conditions it likes. I don't know what bark you have but we get pine bark here and I have never seen an orchid growing on a pine tree - why - because of the tannin! Many orchids such as Vandas and Laelia anceps like to grow on a piece of hardwood branch - just tie them on and in no time they will attach themselves with roots. Now please tell me how you set peanut butter outdoors for the ants - does it kill them off?

Excuse me..... I have remembered! that white foam stuff is called polystyrene, and the mix is also wrong - should be about 1% by weight stone or granite and 1% by volume polystyrene - not 10%......sorry! My 'forgettory' is definitely better than my memory these days!

Thank you sooo much. I started the soaking of new bark today.

You are welcome - if you get the basics right you cannot fail to grow lovely plants and will be rewarded with the stunning flowers in due course. Good luck and please tell me how much boric acid you mix with how much peanut butter.

2tbl pb to 1/2 tsp boric. same qty jelly. Do both.

and or-

One cup water
1/3 cup sugar
One tbl. Boric
Bring to boil for homogenization.

This works for what kind of ants? Ghost ants by chance??? I need to figure out how to get rid of ghost ants

Thanks Tim and please post a pic later to let us see how your plant is doing. Cheers.

Here in ca it works on argentine ants. I dont know about others.