Cambria Orchid - General Condition - Page 3 - Orchid Board

Nic100 · #21 01-17-2010, 05:05 PM

Well, you never know - I also had to remove a lot of soft roots that seemed to just come away, but it is really thriving now. If you can see in the pictures the pseudobulbs on mine were really shrivelled back in September, but now the whole plant is doing really well and the bulbs have plumped up although they still have some wrinkles! You never know - might have caught it in time!

Blueszz · #22 01-17-2010, 05:06 PM

No, I think you did the right thing. Now the only thing you can do is wait and hope that the pb put out some new growths (that is were the new roots must come from) and have enough energy left to complete that...

Keep the medium on the dry side... mist is once in a while... but what I read I don't think the plant can benefit from it at this time...

Grrrrrrr.... this makes me so angry... I've seen more of these plants in bad shape in shops this week. :-(

Nicole

camille1585 · #23 01-17-2010, 05:13 PM

It's too bad about your plant.

Hopefully it will put out new growths soon, so that you'll get some new roots. I'm really starting to think that the only way to keep these supermarket/garden center Onc hybrids alive is to get one that just arrived in the store from the grower, and then to repot it the second that you walk into the door. I would love to try a Nelly Islier again, but I don't feel like risking losing another one.

Emma_TB · #24 01-17-2010, 05:42 PM

Turns out the other half took some pics while I was washing my hands - this was what I was left with after removing the worst roots and the moss etc.

For some reason they look green on this pic, but they were much paler. They actually look better here than I remember from earlier - although there aren't many there... I'm hoping new ones will grow.

How can you tell when there is new growth? And when does this usually occur? How long does it take? Sorry for all the questions, but I am so new to this...

It doesn't feel as steady in it's pot as it did - is that because of the lack of roots? Or should I have potted it a little deeper? No roots are showing over the surface.

Fingers crossed...

camille1585 · #25 01-17-2010, 05:54 PM

With so little roots, you need to put it in a very very small pot. If you put it back in the same one there will be a lot of medium with no roots to take up water,and so will stay soggy much longer, and so rot what roots are left. As for the growths, you need to cross your fingers that they appear soon! They emerge at the base of the bulbs, between the leaves. Usually they appear a few weeks after the plant finishes blooming, but at this time of year the plant might not put out growths very quickly.

RosieC · #26 01-19-2010, 04:21 AM

Hi Emma,

Sounds just like my first Miltoniopsis when I repotted.

The roots on these are meant to be thinner than something like a Phal for instance, but if the velamen (not sure the spelling myself) is coming away to the touch then that's bad, and what was happening to mine.

I tried to be as gentle as I could when washing the roots (tepid water is good) and potted back up with the roots that were left. It has sat and done nothing for months and months and months, looking shrivled and sick but still green (although not a healthy shade). Only just in the last week I think it may be trying to recover... there was a new growth when I bought it which had stalled and never got bigger... well I am sort of sure it may have grown recently... I'm not 100% sure and I've photographed it so I can compare in a few weeks.

I think you've done the right thing and I think it's a case of just keep caring for it and hope for the best.

Emma_TB · #27 01-25-2010, 05:35 PM

Well it's been just over a week since the trim and repot. The flowers have died off (however it'd been in flower since I got it Christmas eve so it may have been coincidence?) so I have cut the spike down to about 6 cm, having been advised to do this after flowering to promote new growth. The leaves are still green looking, I'd have thought they'd be discoloured by now if it was on it's way out, so I have my fingers crossed. The PB still looks wrinkled and I can't see any signs of new growth (but that is to my highly untrained eye!) so I am just going to hope for the best really. Watch this space!

Skirril · #28 08-10-2011, 02:09 PM

Hello all, I am sorry to tag on the end of a thread like this, but I am new to this forum and have questions about an orchid I have just like the one in this post. I don't have pics yet, but can get some if necessary.

First off it was from Tesco, maybe a month ago, I have other orchids which are phals, but this is my first non-phal.The PB are slightly wrinkled, (it has 2 larger and 1 smaller one), it has 2 healthy flower spikes and is sending up another. The leaves seem mostly healthy, but with a tiny bit of browning on the end of a couple, and 2 or 3 have some pleats in them. Also, the soil it is in seems to have a lot of little insects, which from what I have just read seem to be fungus gnats?

I haven't taken it out of the pot yet to check it, but I will, I am kind of assuming it will need to be repotted, but I have questions about the repotting itself. I have coconut chips medium sized, but have read that it is a somewhat salty potting medium and that this type of orchid hates salty, is that correct? Or can coconut chips be used? Also, is medium sized too big? I have read they want small bark. I also have perlite and that moss that can be used, anything else I would have to order probably, or I can buy the orchid soil from garden centres, but it is a soil and not bark at all. I am reluctant to buy more stuff on like as I only just bought what I have to repot one of the phals, and the postage is as much as it would cost to buy the bark from where I bought it (9 quid), if that's the only way to save the plant though I can do it.

RosieC · #29 08-10-2011, 03:44 PM

Hi Skirril and welcome to Orchid Board from another brit

I wish my local Tesco had anything other than Phals!

Fungas knats don't hurt the phals as such, but if there are a lot coming up from the medium (bark) then it does imply the bark needs changing.

I must admit I'm not sure about the salt in the coconut husk chips (CHC). I have my Cambria in a mixture of medium CHC and small bark. I washed the CHC quite a lot before using though, soaking it for 24hours tipping away the water and soaking again... repeating several times.

If it's a similar size to mine then I think you should be fine with just that. I would not add moss personally as CHC stays fairly wet a long time and moss would make that even longer which would probably cause problems. Not sure where you got your CHC from, I got mine from Orchid Accessories so if it was the same place it's probably the same size as mine.

I sometimes mix perlite with my CHC and/or Bark, but I'm not always a fan of it in those mixes any more, especially plain CHC. Perlite can hold a lot of moisture as well and fills the gaps in the CHC where you really want good air flow.

The best time to repot an orchid like a Cambria (Oncidium Alliance) is when there is new growth and thus new roots (or soon to be new roots). I've repotted at other times, but they tended to sulk a bit until new growth and new roots appeared.

Kimbubbley · #30 08-10-2011, 04:34 PM

Hi Skirril

welcome to OB! personally I'm glad u revived this thread, because after a bad experience with a couple of supermarket Phals I ALWAYS repot them. However stupidly I haven't repotted my Militonia and put the pleated leaves down to poor or no water when it was being shipped around after leaving the growers.... posting here today u may have just saved an orchid life! I will repot tomorrow

I wish u good luck with ur repotting too!