Question
I bought a beautiful pink cymbidium orchid plant about 2 weeks ago with 3 spikes, 2 of which were in full bloom.  Sincw bringing it home, the other spike has bloomed but the tips of some of the leaves have started to turn brown.  It is in a room with a skylight but not direct sunlight.  I only watered it once 10 days ago.
What is causing the leaf tips to brown?  Thank you for your expertise.

Answer
Hello Karen,

Without actually seeing your cymbidium, I can't be sure but I believe the browning leaf tips might have already been there when you bought it and just didn't notice because you were looking at the blooms.

Brown leaf tips are usually caused by either water that is high in salt (sodium chloride), excessive use of fertilizers or a combination of both.  Over time, you may see the browning slowly migrate down the leaf and it may eventually kill the entire leaf although it probably won't kill the cymbidium.  If the brown leaf tips bother you, you can cut off the offending tip but cut it at an angle so it doesn't look obvious that the leaf tip had been cut off.  By the way, this salt migration process can take upwards of 3 months to go from the roots to the leaf tips.  

You can help minimize tip browning by watering twice once a month.  Water with plain water in the morning, wait about 1 to 2 hours then water again.  The first watering will dissolve any salts within the potting media and the second watering will flush it out.  Be sure to run lots of water through the pot both times, enough where water is flowing out the drainage holes on the pot bottom.  

Once the blooms have all died off, it would be a good idea to put it outdoors as cymbidiums really are not houseplants.  Depending upon where you live, leave it outside until night temperatures drop below 45F.  Also, while outdoors it may need to be water more frequently than every 10 days as it will tend to dry quicker between waterings.  A good place outdoors would be one that has bright sunlight but with semi-shade during mid day.  

Hope this helped.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.