Help! oncidium roots with black spots... - Page 2 - Orchid Board

Zekeyflower · #11 09-26-2021, 12:58 AM

Thank you shadeflower, in the future I'll look into perlite. At the moment I just don't wanna mess with the medium because I'm worried that the plant will die. I planted it back in bark and am watering more then before. One of the leaves that was yellowing before has gone completely yellow now and I haven't cut it off or anything yet I'm just kinda letting nature take it's course. Other then that leaf the plant isn't looking any different.
When you say that the new psuedobulb is no longer connected to the rest does that mean that it's not receiving any nutrients from the other psuedobulbs? I figured if there was a root connecting them then it was serving some kind of purpose. I also don't know if it is typical for new growth to disconnect itself from the older plant?
Any thoughts on misting the plant? I know some people who have orchids that swear by misting but they both have phalaenopsis orchids so they are different than mine. I've been misting just the top soil and the one little aerial root (I think it's the healthiest one the plant has at the moment). Anyway any input is appreciated. I just really wanna keep this plant alive - it has a lot of sentimental value for me.

YetAnotherOrchidNut · #12 09-26-2021, 04:40 AM

Misting an Oncidium is fine as long as you couple it with proper water. But i think you need to take to heart a comment from earlier in this thread: If you want this plant to survive you need to decide on what to do and then leave it be.

I have rescued a couple of Oncidiums that were in a near rootlees state. I nesteled them into fine bark with a sphag top dressing, put them where they were warm (bottom heat) under steady but low intensity lights and gave them moisture regularly via weekly long soaks and regular misting. They grew pups, and once they did rapidly recovered and are thriving now. The whole game is to get new pups to grow, new roots will only be generated by the pups.

I don't know how others here feel about this, but my experience is that pretty much all orchids in distress that I have encountered respond well to bottom heat and consistent light. Get yourself a heatmat, and put the plant, in a cache pot, on to it. The heat will increase the humidity around the plant and the bottom heat will trick the plant into thinking it is spring and I bet it produces pups for you. Producing pups is an Oncidium survival mechanism. It wants to produce them, you just have to let it do its thing.

But the main thing is once you put it somewhere secure so it cant shift or move in the pot (new roots are very fragile) leave it alone except when you water. The less you mess with it the less chance you have to damage a growth point or break the root tips from a new pup you can barely see.

Shadeflower · #13 09-26-2021, 06:09 AM

Hey zekey,
you will find that everyone has their own technique, spraying, dunking, watering, self watering, semi hydro etc.

There is no right or wrong.

I have been advised lots of orchids need to be grown mounted. This is not really the case

Most people pbelieve rock growing orchids need to be grown on rocks.

It is hard for me to tell you what you need to do and I don't think I shoud be the one to advise as I use extremely experimental methods at time.

Sometimes I find something that works 10x better, sometimes I do something that doesn't work.

Anyway, they are disconnected. I can't tell you why, but hoepfully the smaller one just snapped off.

You might think they are connected by a root - this is not physically possible, what will be happening is that one root has attached itself to the other root and it will seem they are connected but if they are not connected at the bulbs it is impossible for one root to grow out of a bulb and be attached to a different bulb at the same time.

So this is a problem. The backbulbs won't make it (edit: actually the backbulbs do have at least 1 healthy root so it could make it). Only the new bulb which is already smaller and weaker than the previous bulbs will be able to make it. It has some good roots and what YaON says should work if you can.

The backbulb will need to be kept humid 100% of the time. This is more important than heat. If the heat dries the bulb too much it might not like it.

But cold + high humidity promoted funga infections. Weak bulbs are prone to getting infected.

So those are the challenges. you need to maintain high humidity, have good airflow (without dropping humdity, so just gentle circulating) and some artificial light as winter is approaching.

How you pot it is up to you. Spraying is ok but watering this one is fine too as it has good roots.

We can't tell you exactly how to pot it as it depends on your experience and how you like to water.

A backbulb like this is most prone to get a fungal infection because you end up spraying it too much..

It is better to water the roots and let the substrate dry till it is nearly dry (not completely) then rewater without making it too soggy.

Hope you can work it out. It's not hard, you just have to maintain a good wet/dry watering cycle without letting it get too wet or too dry at any time, maintaining that is the challenge.