Pseudobulbs

[hollylee]

Wondering if anyoen can tell me more about them. I have two mini oncidiums that dropped their blooms about a month ago and they both have what I would assume to be new pseudobulbs coming up. The larger pseudobulbs wrinkle pretty regularly, I water them 1 to 2 times a week.

**Is it ok for the older larger bulbs to wrinkle?
**Will those bulbs ever spike again?
**Do they grow new bulbs each cycle?

Thats all i can think of right now...

THANKS!!

[Orchidophile]

Hi Holly, I will try to answer your questions the best I can but only based on my own experience. Yes I would say it is fine if the older bulbs wrinkle and no they will not flower again but are still used to store nutrients. They will grow new bulbs when the old one is done blooming or growing incase it didn't bloom for some reason.

[camille1585]

Hmm... I replied last night but my post is not here!
So I'll try again

Question 1: I think it is normal for the older bulbs to wrinkle after a while. The oldest bulbs on my sole oncidium are very wrinkled, but all the new and semi new bulbs are still plump. you say that the bigger bulbs wrinkle regularily. Do you mean that they wrinkle then plump up and wrinkle again? In that case, increasing watering should keep them plump. Do you have a of your plant? That would help!

Question 2: Bulbs only spike once, and that's it. You'll either get 1 or 2 spikes per bulb (one on each side of the bulb). That's why having new bulbs is so important: no new bulbs= no more blooms!

Question 3: a healthy well fed plant will produce many new bulbs from the previous year/cycle's bulbs. Depends on the size of the plant.

[greenbean]

I agree with camille on this. If the pseudobulbs are alternately wrinkling and plumping, they need more water. Eventually, they may get to the point where they are too old to plump up, but they will still store food for the rest of the plant. And definitely post some pics for us. They help a lot.

Speaking of which, I have my own oncidium pseudobulb related question. I have an Onc. Twinkle in a 4 inch pot with fine fir bark. It gets "weakly weekly" feeding and receives about 3-5000 foot candles throughout the day from a south window. However, it was growing in a dimmer west window for most of the time I've had it, closer to 2-3000 footcandles most of the day. When I bought it, it was crammed into a 3 inch pot, so I crammed it into a the 4 inch pot. There was such a wide mass of p.bulbs that I couldn't get it deep enough in the pot. The p.bulbs that grew after it bloomed are about a 1/3 or less the size of the growths it had when I bought it. There are about 8 or 9 crammed between the older p.bulbs. Also, the basal leaves failed to form properly and the few that did grow split when the p.bulbs expanded. Some of the leaves on top of the bulbs are pleated or disfigured at the base. It didn't seem to put out many roots either. Ok, I think that's a long enough description , unless I missed something. Here's some pictures:

So should I repot or divide or something else?

[sucuz]

I'm not an authority, but I'd go to a bigger pot. Looks like it is getting pretty crowded as the new growth is beginning to spill over the edges.

Wrinkled leaves on oncidium leaves are usually an indication that the plant needs more water. Your picture doesn't show this. Just going by your description. If the pot is getting too small, it may be drying out more quickly. Don't know if the splitting of the basal leaves indicates this also or if this is another issue entirely.

[magicatt]

I agree with sucuz. Accordion leaves indicate the need for more water.

[greenbean]