Oncidium hastilabium with rot

[orc_kid]

Smiles from down under!

Total noob here.

Please help me out, I am eager to learn.

I bought my first orchids a few weeks ago, ten of them. All of them were mounted at the edge of my garden, outside, in part protection / part shade. Recently it has rained a lot. I haven't watered them much or often, and all of them are in extremely well draining tubes. All of them seem happy except one, which today I noticed looked rotten.

I understand it has possibly been too wet and it's unhappy.

I felt the growing media and it's very moist.




Current plan is as follows.

I've brought it inside and put it near a little heater to promote warm airflow and help to dry it out.

Once it has dried out I will mount it somewhere with more light and no rain, far from the other orchids. It's winter here so it won't fry in the sun.

Someone online said powdered cinnamon might help deter fungal growth.

Am I doing this right? Any other recommendations?

[estación seca]

Sorry, it's dead. If it's been raining a lot the moss remained waterlogged, there was no air at the roots, and they suffocated. Moss shouldn't be kept wet.

[orc_kid]

The roots are literally hanging in air, there shouldn't be a problem with air availability.

Also I can see a stem or root-like part of the orchid on top of the moss and it appears green and healthy looking.

I'm going to keep at it and try to get it back to leafy happiness.

[NatalieS]

Perhaps it's the pictures, but I don't see any roots hanging in the air - I see them all inside a black plastic pot packed with moss, no? Are there any roots hanging outside of this pot?

If they are all packed inside of the pot, and the pot is packed with moss, then no, the roots themselves are not in contact with the air if the moss in the pot gets soaked through and the water pushes out any available air pockets.

This looks dead to me too, though I do see what looks like a green root trying to push out of the medium - it's hard to tell though, sorry, that part of the picture is blurry.

If this plant does somehow make a recovery, it will take a long time before it will reach a point where it will bloom. Personally, I'd start again with a new one.

[Blueszz]

Even if there are still live roots, I consider this Onc. as a goner.

[Dusty Ol' Man]

This may be an unpopular opinion, but this is exactly the reason I say growing in moss is not for beginners. I realize the plants probably came to you that way, but if I received these plants in this medium the first thing I would do would be to change it. Hopefully I could wait until new roots appeared. And I would definitely bring them under protection from rain. Moss is that one medium that needs constant monitoring for moisture. I don't use it as a growing medium. I do use it to provide moisture and humidity on new mounts. Once the plants are established I will usually remove most of it. Just some things to think about. Keep us informed of your progress and welcome to the OB.

[Diane56Victor]

Hi, welcome to the forum.
Sorry, but I too think your plant is dead. I'm no expert with this particular species or species in general but the growing temps for this species say minimum 10-18C overnight.
The wet weather plus the overnight cold temps has probably just been too much for it.
I realise you may live in a microclimate of Sydney with slightly better temps but generally speaking the overnight temps for Sydney for the past couple of weeks has been quite cold and quite a few nights the temp has dipped to at least 11C which seems to be borderline for the plant to cope.
The temps I found quoted as minimum of 10-18C overnight would probably refer to mature plants, young seedlings generally do better with more benign temps.

Mature plants can cope with being over wet OR too cold over short periods but both wet and cold would certainly give it a hard time. As you can imagine a young seedling wouldn't do well at all, especially as its media is moss which stays wet.

Something else to consider is where the plant is, your pic seems to show it hanging in a tree, maybe the seller had it in a shadehouse, again being a very young seedling this could be another stressor for it.

I'm so sorry this post is such a downer. I'm sure you did what you thought was best for it and as you said the others are doing fine. Maybe that plant was just a bit weaker to start with.

Believe me I'm no stranger to losing plants. It happens to us all and it will happen to you again. I think the best thing to do is cut your loss, bin it and concentrate on the other plants.
It will sting a bit to thow it out but it will save you stressing about it and lets face it 9 out of 10 living plants is good going.

[orc_kid]

Thanks for the tip on changing media. That's just the sort of thing I joined for. I'll try to get something else pronto and swap it out.

Right now, after a heater dry-out, it's been placed outside in an early morning direct sun position (gets shade from sunrise through about 11AM). I felt it today and it's definitely dried out but not totally dry. I'll leave it totally dry for 1-2 days then spray the bottom of the tube where the roots poke out and just keep monitoring.

I've angled the top toward the light to encourage some photosynthesis in the green root part given it has no leaves left, although there's some stubs. Hopefully that's enough of a life line for it to shoot again.

For the rest of you - OH MY GOD. What lightweight gardeners you lot make! Giving up so soon! Of course I won't give up. Total nonsense! But I'm sure you mean well and thanks for allowing me to fail if I want to. Perhaps you are right and it's write-off. I've seen things in the ground disappear for over six months before re-sprouting, so even though orchids probably aren't that hardy I'm a long way short of trashing it. I'll post here a victory shot if it ever shoots again, or a shot in the bin if it doesn't.

Thanks for the welcome.