Oncidium Oddity

[Troythediver]

I am pretty sure that it has had enough water. In fact I probably overwatered it initially since I had never had an orchid in such coarse media. I watered it maybe every other day for two months while it was on my kitchen window sill.

The wrinkled bulbs never changed. I don't think that they can.

Here is another piece to the puzzle. It was on a window sill that has a radiator in front of it. The newest pbulb, with the weird spike was kind of sticking out over it. I joticed this morning that it was fairly hot right there. Could intense and sporadic dry heat be another factor in the stuck leaves/ spike?

[orchidsarefun]

here is an example. I got this about a year ago at an auction and repotted and found either dried out or rotted roots.
It had an old bulb ( shrivelled - on the right in the first photo ) and a semi-mature pbulb - the one that now has a spike. You can see pleated leaves on this one and they will never go away.
So - after a year, I have the following:
- a spike off the now mature pbulb
- a new growth off this pbulb too
- a new growth off the vastly improved back-bulb ( worse condition than yours originally )
The above was all due to being careful with a watering regime....and fertilising.
I have other examples. Older bulbs shouldn't shrivel !

[reliablefool]

My experience with shriveled pbulbs is simply that some re-plump and others do not. My brassia plumped up very nicely after being almost as dry as they could possibly be before turning brown, but my oncidiums and brassidium do not re-plump no matter what I do.

Now, a spike from the top of the pbulb...I don't have any experience with that. Could it possibly be an Encyclia? I believe I've read that those spike from the top of the pbulb.

[orchidsarefun]

I checked my notes on this and it turns out that I cut the backbulb off of the plant when I repotted - and just planted the backbulb in the same pot, not expecting it to grow or do well. Now I have 2 separate plants
I will repot into 2 pots after blooming is done.
I think overwatering of plants in this alliance is worse than underwatering....

[Troythediver]

It was a no id oncidium according to the tag and it looked like the classic dancing lady type brown/yellow flower. The old spike came up from the side of the pbulb and not the top.

[reliablefool]

Oh...then let's just call it a mutant. Hehe. You've found yourself a strange one :P

[My Green Pets]

Nobodys mentioned the hot air from the radiator yet. I think that could affect soft new growth such as a spike and cause it to twist and malform.

[Orquiadicto]

I guess all the external factors could cause malformation to the spike, but I don't think they can affect where the spikes is located. I've never seen an Oncidium with a spike coming out from the top of the p-bulb. I have an Oncidium Twinkle whose spike was caught between the leaf and the rim of the pot and got twisted, but it came from the place it is supposed to come from.