Urgent advice with problematic Lycaste Aromatica

[Jeff9]

Greetings,

I've been growing for a few years now but i'm not very experienced with Lycaste.
The plant in question is Lycaste Aromatica, i received the 2 back bulbs a long time ago and it has never performed really well.

Basically, the two back bulbs are very dark (almost black) and the three front ones are very small, the middle one being damaged severely and slightly rotting and degrading.

The root system is pathetic, from what i can tell most roots are dead or dying so i removed it from its pot to see what's going on.

A while ago it had a new growth on the damaged bulb, but it got infected with little black insects and died off before i found out.

Now taking it out of its pot i've noticed what seems to be either spikes or new growths, i assume the latter.
Both growths are growing from the middle bulb which is also the most healthiest.

My question is if anyone with more lycaste experience than me could give me some advice in what actions to take next.

1. How can i prevent the new growths from getting infected with the black insects again (lice?), and will it happen again?

2. Should i leave the remaining roots even tough i assume they're dead?

3. Should i keep the plant intact or slice it up in divisions/backbulbs (both growths are coming out of 1 bulb and i fear the 2 back and front one will die off)

I have been thinking about moving this plant to s/h would it be a wise decision judging by its condition and if so, i assume it will be best to wait untill roots start growing from the growths?

My plan was to put it on a small saucer with some leca and sphag to keep it moist and allow the growths to develop and then move it to S/H

Please give me some advice as i'm unsure how to handle this lycaste.

The growths are marked with red circles on the photographs

Thanks.

[Ray]

It look like that poor thing is in its last throes of survival effort, all right.

In nature, they are often found on damp rocks or on wet branches in cooler, cloudy regions, so I put mine into s/h culture, getting paph light levels.

As far as preventing insect attack, that's all about your overall care, so i don't know howe to respond to that.

[Jeff9]

Originally Posted by Ray

It look like that poor thing is in its last throes of survival effort, all right.

In nature, they are often found on damp rocks or on wet branches in cooler, cloudy regions, so I put mine into s/h culture, getting paph light levels.

As far as preventing insect attack, that's all about your overall care, so i don't know howe to respond to that.

The weird thing about the insects (atleast i assume they were insects) was that it only affected the new growth of the Lycaste and no other plant in my house has it or has had it, lets hope for the best.

So what i finally did today gathering all the bits and pieces of information from this forum and i prepared a s/h pot and trimmed the dead roots off and placed it ontop of the LECA and sealed the whole thing with a plastic bag.

Now that it has little to no roots i hope it has enough strenght to develop the 2 growths and produce roots.

I added a little fertilizer that i still had, Peters Proffesional Allrounder 20+20+20, does anyone have any experience with this type of fertilizer?

[2ljd]

Jeff9,

I would try repotting it into a tighter pot...they do better if you keep the pot size to a minimum. As for the decaying bulbs, they'll do that eventually, but it sounds like something else may have caused the rotting. That being the case, I would divide the plant and remove those that are rotting, which hopefully doesn't include the one with the new growth. As long as you can keep at least 2-3 bulbs intact, it should be fine. I know some folks have great results using the LECA, but at this point, to establish a root system I would use a 50/50 mix of sphagnum and perlite. Packed in fairly tight, it will provide direct moisture to the root area...just a suggestion. Good luck!

[V_coerulea]

I agree with 2ljd and give the plant the usual plastic bag treatment for plants that are less than healthy. There's a thread somewhere around about how to do that, soaks to use, etc. I do think that at this point there is little point in potting it up until it has some roots.