Me - the oncidium killer

[Silje]

I can't do oncidiums apparently. It doesn't matter what kind of pot I use or what kind of growth medium I use, I always kill my oncidiums by giving them root rot from over-watering. I've tried everything from LECA to sphag and the result is always the same. It bothers me, because I really like oncidiums and would love to grow them.

During my morning check-up in the greenhouse I looked at my (flowering?! some kind of last desperate attempt to spread the genes, I suppose) Beallara Peggy Ruth Carpenter and my odds and ends of NOID wildcats etc...and then towards the end of the morning check-up I came to the mounts close to the door where the rodriguezia venusta is growing happily with her messy roots and lush, green leaves on a...mount! A mount!!!

Haven't ever tried mounts on any of my oncs before. The rodriguezia seems to be the only orchid in the oncidium family that is happy to be in my care. it could of course be because she's a tough bugger and has a cat's number of lives, but I'm considering whether more of my onc might be happy on mounts.

I don't think I've ever heard of anyone growing beallaras on mounts before. Or colmanaras for that matter.

What do you think? I was thinking that I perhaps should be a bit more generous with the moss and the coir than I normally would be with cattleyas, for instance, but do you think they could be happy like that?

If I am to do it, this is the right time of the year. Several of them are making new growth right now and I know that they are growing new roots at the moment (that I then kill, but still... )

I'm considering making it my weekend project.

Has anybody tried this? Did it work?
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The poor oncidiums in my care is sighing in relief. What used to be cruel mistreatment and sure death has in the past few months turned into something endurable. Yey!

This is a picture of the NOID onc that I decided to mount, since pots just never really worked well with me and these guys.