Oncidium pseudobulb wrinkling... healthy?

[cythaenopsis]

I have an oncidium microchilum seedling that I've been growing for almost 2 months now (it's in the back of this photo). It came with 3 small leaves and one rather large wrinkly pseudobulb that had been pruned (dried cap where a leaf once was). The pseudobulbs of the two larger leaves have been very gradually enlarging (thankfully), however I've noticed that the largest one is starting to show some prominent wrinkling. The skin of the bulb is not shriveled, so I'm hoping that this is just normal and that my watering practice is fine enough for the plant. But, being the newbie orchid grower that I am, I'd rather just run this by the wonderful experts on this forum, just to be sure. Here's a photo montage:



What do you think? Thumbs up or down?

[ronaldhanko]

Looks okay to me - you've got a good new growth going and that draws from old bulbs which do usually wrinkle on plants from the Oncidium alliance as they grow older.

[cythaenopsis]

^ Thanks, Ron!

[WhiteRabbit]

I agree with Ron - and while that pbulb has some deep wrinkles, it isn't extremely shriveled.

[cythaenopsis]

The plant is continuing to do well. The new bulb doesn't appear to be developing further wrinkles, nor deepening the existing ones.

One other thing, on a related note...
The tallest leaf is leaning forward, about 10 degrees over from straight up. I think it's because of how I had the plant positioned, as I was trying to let the leaf maximize sunlight exposure. But it doesn't look very aesthetic.

Is it a good practice to rotate orchid pots so that leaves take on pleasing symmetry, or is it better to let them be and allow the leaves to move in whatever direction they please?

[cythaenopsis]

Well, more than half a year later, things have changed a little for the worse. I'd had this plant continuing in sphagnum moss exclusively, but after observing more extensive pseudobulb wrinkling I checked the roots and found them a little unhealthy.

Last month, I repotted it in a combination of fresh organic sphagnum moss with a bark chip overlay. The plant has not shown any improvement, but not gotten worse. There's now a small outcropping of a new bulb coming off the side. I don't know if this is a good or bad sign.

NOTE: The larger shriveled bulb had no leaf when I first got it (you can see this in the earlier photos). It started fairly plump and has gradually shriveled over the 10 months since I got the plant.

The leaves are showing a little bit of wrinkling as well, but one leaf is worse than the other two.

Is this a sign of under or over watering... or something else?

[james mickelso]

I'm not a fan of spagnum moss. I feel it stays too wet. Fine if your growing conditions are controlled but I see so many plants do well at first just to falter when they should be going forward at a sprint. I feel that spagnum moss stays too wet especially as it ages. And then it is compressed by the bark overlay which I don't understand. If I may ask (and I will), what was the purpose of the bark? The shriveling of the pbulbs is natural. Their starches and sugars are being used by the new growth to grow before there are sufficient roots to get it to full growth. The pbulbs serve no other purpose than to feed new growth. That new shoot is what you want. No other part of the plant is as meaningful. If it were my plant, I would take it out of the moss and plant it in a bark mix. Medium bark (1/4 to 1/2 inch), medium spong rock, and charcol. If you want a more moist mix the cut up some of that moss into 1 inch long pieces and mix that in at a ratio of 1 handful of moss to 3 handful of bark mix. Put the plant in as small a pot as can accomodate the roots. Plant with the oldest pbulb back against the edge of the pot. Water well and then lift the pot and feel how heavy it is. Wait a week and then weigh the pot again and feel how light it has gotten. That's the fool proof way to judge when your plant needs water. Asa for th esthetics of plant fungshway Let it grow wherever it wants to grow. If you want it to grow up and to the left,place something in front of where you want it to go.

[NYCorchidman]

looks very dried up to me. It's a sign of dehydration and lower humidity compared to the high humidity they are used to at the nursery. I thought some of my oncidiums had wrinkles that worry me, but yours beat me by big margin! lol

While some of mine do not recover once wrinkled, some of them do plump back up when I water 'good'. I soak for half an hour in water each time I water.

If the wrinkles are already deep set for a while, then they do not go away.
As long as the plant grows well, I think it's mainly aesthetic thing.

[WhiteRabbit]

check the roots
dehydration can be caused by both under and over watering (over watering killing the roots, so plant cannot take up water)

use a skewer in the media to monitor the moisture

[cythaenopsis]

Thanks for the responses. I had this growing in moss predominantly for the past year. I switched to moss plus bark (50/50), thinking that the roots weren't getting enough air. I didn't want to do full bark, as I go away for 4-5 day stretches sometimes and don't want to worry about the plant not getting a daily watering.

I did think the wrinkles were due to dehydration at first, but I watered it frequently with the bark medium and didn't see any change.

I will try going with some coconut husk and finely chopped bark, and ditch the moss. It may be that this particular variety orchid doesn't thrive in a moss medium.