Some exciting new growth

7 years ago

I bought this plant off the discount rack last July; it had no tag at all, so I have no idea what it might be. I've been treating it like it's an oncidium, though it took me several months to decide maybe it would like being watered more often than I'd originally believed (and it sure seems to appreciate that).

It had one tiny pseudobulb and the one big one, and then a small bit of a third growth. Here's what it looks like now.

It didn't seem to be doing anything for several months, and then I realized maybe the third growth was actually getting bigger, and the new leaves were coming in crinkled, so maybe I really DID need to up the water - and after that, it seemed to grow faster. Plus I started giving it a light dose of fertilizer every watering or 3.

I was really excited earlier this spring to see this beautiful new pseudobulb start to emerge from the new leaves!

Then tonight, I was checking over my plants, and picked this one up to admire it, and noticed around back of the new pseudobulb there's another growth busting through one of the new leaves!!!

I wasn't even sure this plant would survive when I got it. I'd never kept any oncidium type before, and all its roots were kind of squishy, and very short, so I thought they might be dead, but it seemed like all of them were like that (it has a mass of very fine roots), and I wasn't going to cut ALL its roots off, so I stuffed it back in the pot and hoped for the best, and it kept falling out of the pot, and I kept stuffing it back in, and . . . And now it's been putting out some really healthy bright white roots to go with the shiny new pbulb, so I'm hoping it'll get nicely anchored and maybe grow like a weed.

I think it's not been getting as much light as it would like - the foliage has always been a pretty dark green - but I recently moved it to where it should be getting more light, and I'm waiting to see if it will lighten up.

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Comments (2)

jane__ny
7 years ago
If this was my plant, this is what I would do.

I would carefully remove the plant from the plastic pot. Do not disturb the roots to the new growth. If possible remove some of the old potting media from the older roots, but if that is difficult, forget it. You do not want to damage the newest roots in any way.

Place the plant in a slightly larger pot, clay would be best. Use small bark if you can find it (you can order a small bag on line). If you can't get small bark, use an orchid mix from one of the big box stores. Soak the bark mix overnight before repotting.

Carefully place the plant in the new pot without disturbing any new roots. Water well and place the plant in the brightest spot in your house or outside for the summer (shady/bright, not direct sun).

Fertilize with each watering at half strength.

If all goes well, you should get flowers from that new growth this winter.

Jane
J Feathersmith
Original Author
7 years ago
*nod* Thanks! Sounds like I need to move it into a brighter spot than it is.

I did just repot it about a week ago, to a fine orchid bark w/some perlite mix. I put it back into the same pot, though, because it seemed about the right size to contain the root mass, at least in diameter (the roots don't go down very far), but I do have some slightly larger clear plastic orchid pots. Would clay be better than a plastic orchid pot? Isn't there a risk of the roots adhering to the clay and then you lose some during the next repotting? Or is that not a big enough problem compared to how quickly clay dries?
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Some exciting new growth

Comments (2)

jane__ny

J Feathersmith
Original Author

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Some exciting new growth

Comments (2)

jane__ny

J FeathersmithOriginal Author

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J Feathersmith
Original Author