Zygo growths have all rotted off - Can I save this chid?

[Izzie]

Grats! It'll be interesting to see what it turns into.

[RosieC]

After a day in the garden I'm just loading the pics I took of this new Zygo growth on to the PC. I'll post them here see what you think.

[nhman]

Agree from my experience with Zygos that this one can probably be salvaged. It will take some time, however, do not be overly hasty at trashing the plant. Just give it a good zygo media to grow in, keep it moist but not wet (I think that the moss at the roots was the source of your problems ) and they will surprise as they are a remarkable strong group of orchids.
Best of luck, for they are well worth the effort for their amazing scented blooming spikes. I have five in bloom right now and the aroma is heavenly in my growing area!!

[RosieC]

Can you see the new growth? You have to look very hard... right down the bottom, below the two p-bulbs, below all the dead material... it's there and it actually looks bigger today since taking this pic yesterday.



Click on the pic to expand it, the growth is really hard to spot.

PS. I had just watered which is why it looks very wet. It's a lot drier most of the time.

[RosieC]

I was litereally considering throwing this away when I spotted the growth.

The roots are all in atrocious condition, the large p-bulb is wrinkling more all the time... but I will give this a chance now.

[Duane McDowell]

With decent roots and active growth, a Zygo can take a lot of water. But they don't ever like to have water sitting down inside the growths. The roots look great, so over-watering was almost surely not the issue. Your observation that a "core of moss" causes a problem is, I think, entirely accurate. When I grew commercially, we started most of our plants in sphagnum in little plug flats. Once they were big enough, we transferred them into individual pots. We experimented with leaving the sphagnum intact and found that it created a little pocket of excessive moisture in the pot, and that, if we removed the sphagnum before repotting the plants performed better.
I like to repot plants when I buy them. It tells me a lot about how they're doing, and gives me a chance to pot them the way I want them potted...

[RosieC]

Thanks Duane,

I think I should have repotted straight away. I find most Oncidium Alliance coming out of Europe have this moss plug at the center. I wish they did like you and remove it when repotted, but now I know I know I have to do this whenever I buy them.

[Tropicgirl]

Wow, you have a good eye! Took me a minute to see that tiny little growth! Congrats! I think you may have saved it!

[RosieC]

Yeah, I almost missed it and I was standing there thinking "really should throw this out it's never going to do anything" when somehow my eye caught sight of this tiny thing. Really hoping it will make it

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

They most likely will if the root system on the plant is strong enough to make a comeback.

Zygos are very strong plants. They will never say die, even when they're dying.