Bulbophyllum fascinator Import

[Nish07]

Hi Guys,

I decided to get an Bulbophyllum fascinator corazonae after a while of not keeping any orchids and put it in my aroid room (I don't have frog tanks at the moment). The room sits at around 70 degrees in winter and up to 90 degrees summer.

When I got the plant, the roots were a little dark. I set the plant in some Kelpac solution for a day or so (maybe bad idea) and then stuck it in some damp sphagnum. It slowly started to lose the smaller back leaves and I noticed the roots were not looking great so I cut all of the roots off and stuck it in a cup with sphag and sealed it in a ziplock. As you can see in the picture, it looks like there's new growth but it's very slow. This has been months for any of the new growth whether roots or leaves to get to this point (and it's not far).

My question is, am I doing things right? What should I be fertilizing this thing with? When it has some decent new roots, what should I do then? Will it be a painful acclimation from what it's in now to 60 percent humidity?

Thanks!,

-Nish

[estación seca]

Ouch. I hope you've realized cutting off orchid roots is almost always a catastrophe, and you won't make that mistake again. It's a particularly bad idea with Bulbos. They have very short, wiry roots that are usually dark brown. You almost certainly cut off a set of decent roots. There are scores of videos advising to cut off roots. I wouldn't watch those channels.

Bulbos require more water than almost any other orchids. Most prefer being wet all the time. Without roots to take up water your plant may drop all its leaves. They make new roots with new growth. So your job is to keep it in high humidity until new roots form. Then keep the new roots wet.

Kelpak is good for stimulating new root growth. For a rootless plant I would use it weekly as a long soak.

Fertilizer isn't important until the plant resumes healthy new growth.

Once growing strongly with a decent root system it will be fine in 60% relative humidity.

[Nish07]

The new growth both roots and two to three new leaves that are emerging are all since I cut off the roots. I had read a post on here telling someone else to cut their roots and put the plant into a sealed container (which is what I do for a lot of other plants/seedlings) so it made sense to me.

The old leaves have stopped dropping off of the plant as of a couple of months ago. I am just concerned with how to feed the thing and what to do once it's ready to come out of the container.

-Nish

[DaylightFirefly]

New growth looks very good on your bulbo.
I keep my young bulbos always wet. I do not know how much comfort you’ll find in my next statement, but I hope some. I got 7 young bulbos last fall. They all gave at least one new growth, but heaven they take their time. They grow with different speed. Some were mature in a month, others chose to sit quietly for a while. My medusa is especially slow. One of the growth was sitting unchanged for about three months and it still had not opened its leaf completely.
I noticed as well, that new bulbs grow up to some point and after that they start to put fresh new green roots in.

[Roberta]

I wonder who made the suggestion to cut roots... generally when someone does that, the experienced growers on the board jump on it and debunk the bad advice. (We can't stop people from giving bad advice but we can - and do - refute it.) If an orchid doesn't have roots, it can't take up either water or fertilizer. So any growing that it can do is at the expense of reserves - pseudobulbs and leaves get "cannibalized" to keep it alive. Evan a bad root is better than a "no root" - it can still passively hydrate the plant, as well as anchoring it in the medium. Putting the crippled plant in a bag slows down the transpiration from leaves, giving the plant a bit of respite slowing dehydration while it recovers. But much better to not get into that situation in the first place. Once you have roots, it can benefit from being place on a bed of sphagnum and kept wet. Fertilizer at this point is a non-issue. Until it has a decent root system, there's no way for it to take up fertilizer... and orchids don't need much anyway. That's the least of your problems. The plant is going to take awhile to recover from the amputation. So be patient.

[DaylightFirefly]

Originally Posted by Roberta

I wonder who made the suggestion to cut roots... generally when someone does that, the experienced people on the board jump on it and debunk the bad advice.

Hi Roberta, what about rotten roots? I just picked a couple phals from a flower shop bin and their roots stink. I cleaned them, and cut rotten ones off. Should I keep all roots including dead and rotten ones?

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DaylightFirefly

Hi Roberta, what about rotten roots? I just picked a couple phals from a flower shop bin and their roots stink. I cleaned them, and cut rotten ones off. Should I keep all roots including dead and rotten ones?

If there are some good roots, then you can trim the obviously bad ones. But if "rotten" means "rotten velamin" (the spongy coating of the root) you can just clean off that smelly bad velamin, leaving the stringy "core" of the root that can provide some hydration (not as efficient as a good one of course) and help anchor the plant in the medium (since if it wobbles the growth of new roots is inhibited). It's a balancing act. But if there are no good roots, best to just wash and clean up what you have because the plant has no other way to take up water. (The bottom line, how is it going to survive if it can't drink? And that goes double for Phals and others with no pseudobulbs... the plant can't do anything except cannibalize itself) And for many orchids, it's not obvious what is "good" and what is "bad" - as ES noted, some Bulbophyllum roots are brown naturally. Good, new Paph roots are also often brown.

[DaylightFirefly]

Originally Posted by Roberta

If there are some good roots, then you can trim the obviously bad ones. …

Thank you. That makes sense.

Phals with no roots or serious root rot I put in a glass of water leaves/head down. It grows aerial root in a couple of months and at that point could be potted.

Paphs and bulbos with no root did not make it in my home nursery. No matter what I do.

[Roberta]

Paphs are going to be especially vulnerable because they have a more complex pattern of rooting... First they put out new growth, then the new growth produces roots. And that pattern typically takes a couple of years.. It starts off depending on existing growth - and its root system - to produce the new growth then the new roots about a year after that. If the original growth is compromised by lack of roots, it doesn't have the energy over a couple of years to get to the next opportunity for roots. Bulbos are just plain intolerant of drying out at all.