If you can wait until September, I believe it is, the Chicagoland Orchid Festival is a fantastic time to score bargains on many young orchid types! Festival information is available at Oak Hill Garden's website, linked below. A couple of years ago, my husband took me to attend, and I found several tables of discounted young stock at Oak Hill Gardens! Some as inexpensive as $2! Of course, many are still in the seedling stage, so they would require a bit of orchid experience and finesse to grow them to blooming size or age... but it's a nice opportunity to practice growing them without spending a fortune... and as we know, most blooming size orchids are rather expensive. The saying goes, you have to kill many an orchid before reaching growing proficiency, and I think this must be true! I've killed several, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Some of the types that are said to be easy for the average homeowner, and in average home conditions, are types that have met their demise at my hands, even though I tried hard to do everything right! In my unique indoor environment, growing in sphagnum peat would be certain death, as would growing them in coco coir chunks, and I could never keep a mounted specimen alive. I seem to have found a happy medium growing my orchids in a rendition of Al's Gritty Mix. It seems to keep just the right amount of moisture available at the roots. I've tried growing Catts, Paphs, Cyms, Dens, Oncids, Phals, Epis, and others... and it appears that Dens are happiest in my apartment, though I am nursing a couple of Phals, an Encyclia and a Cym along. I dearly wish Catts liked the environment I have to offer. Last year, I found a decent sized blooming Dendrobium at Lowe's for $3... it has lovely lavender flowers, and is putting on new growth even now! So, you never know where that next orchid find will come from... you just have to keep your eyes open, always checking those sale tables! Here is a link that might be useful: Chicagoland Orchid Festival Information

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.

I've grown a dozen or more oncids for several years. Yours doesn't look bad to me at all. Tho it could be your photo doesn't make clear the part of the plant that's worrying you. I have Pupukea Sunset as well as Hawaiian Sunset. They are very fragrant, but not the most vigorous oncids I have. Could be the plants I started with, tho. Since you have new growths, that indicates a strong plant to me, not an in-trouble one. Keep an eye on the new growths, they will tell you how the plant is doing. I can't see the new growths in your picture (or much detail about the pseudobulbs, either) The new growths should grow with straight leaves (accordianed leaves = lack of enough moisture) and end up as big or bigger pseudobulbs than the ones you had previously. Along the way, before maturing the new growths put out new roots, which are important if the roots are compromised in any way. In terms of culture, your bark looks kind of big to me. I haven't grown oncids in bark. I've had good luck (roots completely filling the pot) with expanded clay pellets and with Aussie Gold. The pot may or may not be too big, can't tell. I don't know where you got your plant, but it looks like a piece of a bigger plant. If so are you sure it has good roots, and that the pot is the right size? Every stressed orchid I've seen had trouble at the roots. The one caution I couldn't stress enough is to check that there are no pseudobulbs *buried* in the potting. The bulbs of oncids should ride just on top of the mix. Sometimes people bury the old pbs to keep the new growths at the right level. However, this starts rot in the old buried pb, which will spread and affect the whole plant. I can't really tell from your picture if any pbs are buried. If so, pull them up, and lay the plant flat on top of the medium. The leaves are often horizontal when this is done (as yours seem to be), but you can correct the new growths upward by gently tying them up. With so much experience, you'll figure out whether there's a problem or not. And you could consult the person/vendor you got it from about conditions. As Howard indicated, heat can stress these plants. We have hot summers here, tho not as hot as the desert southwest. Some oncids don't take the heat here very well. Others do thrive, tho. If you think it's the heat, maybe you could take it inside the house for a while til the weather cools. Give your plant less sun than a cattleya, and do not let dry out completely before watering. Good luck.

I've had this happen to me a few times over the years. I have never been successful saving the plant until recently. I'm curious as to the cause. I know it is said to be caused by a bacterial infection but I wonder if any real research has been done on it. When I moved a few of my plants from NY to Florida, one Catt was showing signs before the move. I cut off the infected bulbs and treated, but then I neglected most of my plants because there was too much going on. The infection slowed but each new lead would show signs and I'd cut it off. After settling down at a new house, I worked on the plant and wound up dividing it into three sections. I needed to cut so much off it literally came apart. I potted each section of about 3 bulbs each and stuck the plants under a tree, away from my other orchids and forgot them. Yesterday, I looked at them. They were dehydrated (no rain for over a month), they hadn't been fertilized in a year, but I noticed each bulb was forming new leads and roots. The plants were buried in oak leaves but appeared healthy. I'm still not trusting what I saw, am keeping them away from my other plants but all three pots appear recovered. So, I'm now wondering if - dehydration, oak leaves (change in pH) or just luck, seemed to work. If these survive, it will be the first for me. I'm thinking it might not be bacterial or even fungal. I'm leaning toward pH because I have always watered with RO but these plants only got rain. Any thoughts from those who have experienced what the OP is dealing with and any tips about what might 'really' cause it. Jane