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help needed with new oncidium

16 years ago

I recently bought a beautiful little orchid, only identified at the nursery as an oncidium. I believe it is Twinkle "Red Fantasy".

It was very loose in its pot when I bought it and after a two day car trip home, it is now sitting with the upper half inch of its roots above the pot. The ends of its leaves are beginning to turn yellow.

What would be best to do?

Should I put more potting material between the pot side and the roots? This would probably involve using a bigger pot?

Or would it be better to lift the plant all the way up, remove some of the potting material which has migrated to the bottom of the pot and set the plant deeper into the same pot?

Arlene M.

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Comments (3)

mehitabel
16 years ago
Hi, Arlene. This is the kind of judgment call we all have to make a zillion times a week.

If it were me, I would de-pot it. That's because if all you do is pile new medium up to cover the exposed roots, you can't really be sure the roots underneath haven't been dislodged somehow.

While it's out of its pot, I would also give it a little soak in something like super-thrive for a half hour or hour. Get the roots that have been out of medium re-hydrated.

If you need a slightly bigger pot, so be it. Just make sure it isn't much bigger. Just one size up. A peanut or two in the bottom if you need the width, but it's otherwise too deep. Twinkles are small and need a small pot.

For oncids, make sure *all* the pbs are riding on top of the medium. If you bury the pbs, they will rot.

This time of year, the weather is working in your favor, so it should do fine.

Good luck.
tommyr_gw Zone 6
16 years ago
Re-pot it. Just re-pot it and keep it in bright sunless light. IMHO Superthrive is snake oil (does nothing worthwhile). It'll be o.k. They can take it. They are one of my favorites.
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arlenem
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the advice! I found a slightly larger pot, put some potting peanuts in the bottom to make up for the difference in height and put new potting material in along the sides, making the surface the same height as before. Not having anything else, I gave the exposed roots a little soak in water before repotting. I sure hope it works as this is a really great little plant.

While doing this, I checked my phals which had to stay home alone while I went on the trip. Yikes! There were some bad roots from having been too wet. Using advice from elsewhere in this forum, I repotted several of them in better-ventilated pots and am hoping for the best.

This is a great forum!

a.m.

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