Advice for wrinkled Zygo pseudobulbs and repotting Beallarea

[ceropegia]

Yesterday was the orchid sale at the FPC here in Ohio! I managed to get 4 plants for the lovely price of $26.00! They aren't in too bad of a shape, either. They are beallara (this plant has 15 pseudobulbs!!!), burrageara, and zygopetalum (the fourth one didn't have a tag, but its pseudobulbs are a similar size and shape as the burr). I put them all under my T5's, so hopefully that should be sufficient lighting.


My questions are about the zygopetalum and the beallara. The zygo has very shrivelled pseudobulbs (I love zygos so I decided to take a chance on it), but there are new leaves growing in off of one of them. I immediately repotted it with a mix of 3/4 med fir bark and 1/4 spagnum and doused it with water when I got home. It was extremely root bound with lots of dead roots, but there were still some live ones amongst them. Will the pseudobulbs reinflate with water after a time, or is this plant likely to die?

The beallarea is also in desperate need of repotting since there are 15 pseudobulbs growing out of a tiny pot (some of them are growing off the side). I'm not sure how many groups to separate them into, since there are so many. The plant has 3 spikes with dying flowers each coming from separate pseudobulbs, (one still has a living bud on it) and many of the pseudobulbs have no leaves but are still green and very smooth (about 6 have leaves). What would be the best way to separate them?

Thanks for the help! I attached 2 pics as well, the first is the zygo the second is the bllra

[cabnc]

Since your zygo still has a good root foundation you should be OK. Just don't drown the poor thing trying to over compensate for it's need for water. The bulbs may plump up some. But you want to grow new, bigger bulbs for the future flowering.
With the bllra, you must decide. Do you want a few little plants are one big specimen plant. If you want a few, I would still want ~5 p-bulbs per div/plant. Use the 3 youngest p-bulbs (the ones that just spiked) as your start, then follow back into the older p-bulbs to find the natural dividing points.
If you want one big specimen, just pot it up to a larger container.

Charlie

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by cabnc

Since your zygo still has a good root foundation you should be OK. Just don't drown the poor thing trying to over compensate for it's need for water. The bulbs may plump up some. But you want to grow new, bigger bulbs for the future flowering.
With the bllra, you must decide. Do you want a few little plants are one big specimen plant. If you want a few, I would still want ~5 p-bulbs per div/plant. Use the 3 youngest p-bulbs (the ones that just spiked) as your start, then follow back into the older p-bulbs to find the natural dividing points.
If you want one big specimen, just pot it up to a larger container.

Charlie

I would have to agree.

I'll speak about the Zygo first.

The pseudobulbs will plump up, but not to the point where it is smooth. There will still be evidence that it was dehydrated at one point in time. It just won't be debilitating to the plant.

As for the Bllra, it's your choice. Like Charlie said. It's a matter of what you want to achieve in this case.

[ceropegia]

Okay, thanks for the advice. I will probably separate 5 pseudobulbs and give them to my mom since she has become very interested in orchids since I started growing them and has wanted to get a few more

I'm glad to hear the zygo will still do okay. I'm not worried about the looks of the p-bulbs, just if the plant can still do well with them being extremely wrinkled. Wish me luck!