Recovering P Bulbs

[Wahaj]

Hiya,

I have an oncidium NOID I believe that I bought about a year ago from the eden project. As I didn't know much about watering, and I knew I have a habit of over watering things, I repotted it into a thin, tall clay pot with orchid compost i bought from the garden centre.

I watered it about once a week or fortnight all of last year but the p.bulbs dried up slowly over time. It's new growth on the leaves also started to become pleated. So I assumed from this that it was being under watered.

So last week i took it out of the clay pot to find dry but wonderfully clean happy looking roots, however they didn't take into the new compost at all. The compost seemed pretty bone dry, even though i used to soak the pot into water for about 10 minutes and then let the water drain off.

So i've repotted into a much smaller, glazed pot to keep the moisture in.

My question is that if i keep it well watered this time, do you think the p.bulbs will re hydrate or have i now lost them? they're still green, and hold their leaves, they're just shrivelled up and almost flat.

 

[Greenorchid]

I think that if roots are good, you'll have no problem, the PB will rehydrate themselves.. or almost generate other pb...
Pay attention, 'cause in a smaller pot, humidity goes faster away... maybe a plastc pot would works better I grow mine in a plastc pot filled with akadama and they look very happy

 

[Wahaj]

hmm.....ok. I mean my problem most of the time is over watering you see. That's why I planted it in a clay pot last year....but i guess that failed, the roots never took to the compost.

This time it's a glazed pot, but still has a bit of moss, perlite, beany bag beans, bark, coconut fibre and a tiny bit of peat. so hopefully it should hold a bit more moisture this time without it becoming water logged. I've also placed a layer on moss on top of the soil surface to stop the top of the compost drying out and giving a bit of shelter and immediate moisture for the aerial roots.

Does that makes sense or have I got it completely wrong?

I will ofcourse this time be keeping a close eye on it and keep the watering regular.

 

[Greenorchid]

Think it could work. the substrate must be in small pieces 'cause the roots of the oncidium are very thin. Rather, couldn't have been a low relative humidity problem ? You could add some misting, to preserve humidity...

Edit:I apologize, if i've made any mistakes in writing, i'm not english

 

[Wahaj]

Oh that's ok! i understood you perfectly! Yea I can't really be bothered with properly spelling and stuff, as long as it makes sense haha.

Yea the mix isn't too chunky but i think it is well drained. I do also think humidity may have been a problem before. However yes I have been misting it with rain water (if not available, i use low PH bottled water), and I've placed a tray under it filled with perlite soaked in water. I wanted to used clay pellets in the humidity tray, but unfortunately I just can't afford it at the moment!

 

[Greenorchid]

Ok, let's see how it works

 

[NYEric]

I over-water also. That's why I grow Pleuros, phrags, and tolumnias in quick draining media.

 

[Wahaj]

oh really? ok haha. Well I have some phrags on order, and will look into tolumnias as they look pretty. like the look of pleuros, but they sooo look like something I'd kill within a week.

 

[NYEric]

The problem w/ dendrobiums, especially hybrids, is that different familys have diff culture needs: some need definate dry period, some don't, blah blah blah..
So I stick to very wet or very dry.

 

[Wahaj]

yea i know what you mean. and it's difficult in colder climates. I'm afraid of opening the window sometimes in the winter incase i chill the orchids out haha.

and is there any orchids that like it really dry?

 

[NYEric]

There are plenty of orchids that come from places that get a rare rain; or that get a quick drench in the AM and then the roots quickly dry out as they grow on stoney surfaces. Tolumnia, rupicilous laeleas, etc.

 

[Wahaj]

I see! never knew that. I mean I know they grow everywhere. If this is the case, surely they'd be good to grow in a dry living room where they're misted every morning and may be in a dry centrall heated room in the winter.

hmmmm will check them out.