Is This Sick Little Guy Going to make it? :(

[spamelson]

Hi All!
Happy Holidays!
I'm brand new to this forum, and I'm looking for some help...

I gave my friend this unidentified orchid for her birthday one year, and unfortunately, she chose not to take care of it. I believe that it's some sort of intergeneric, but I honestly can't remember what it was. It became severely dehydrated, and so she tried to repot it. However, she separated and threw out the older pseudobulbs... It barely has any of the roots left, and it seems like they are deteriorating. I really want it to survive, so I think that I need a second opinion on this.
Do you think it's dead?

Thanks,
Sam

[RJSquirrel]

not dead yet but close. if you wrap up the roots in some good sphagnum moss and keep it moist, not wet. Moist means when you squeeze the moss it doesn't drip water. Its a fine line between moist and wet. That might support the roots till they get going again.
You have a new bulb and really should have left the old ones. Even if they are old they are full of the juice the plant can use. The bulbs are storage tanks and you took that option away of using reserves. Little moss into a clay pot just barely big enough to hold the roots. I say clay bec it will absorb the excess water and help keep the moss moist not wet. Then you can put that pot into a bigger pot and fill it with lava rocks or granite chips to keep it upright and not fall over. Doesnt need anymore stress right now. but good luck to you and the plant. Im sure others have some more ideas for you to choose from

[Jade]

It looks like a sort of oncidium.
There is a new growth, and this is a good sign, but there are a lot of brown roots, and I think that they're rot.
In the second pic it seems that are some green roots, in this case your orchid is not dead.
I would try to repot it with bark and sphagnum.

[spamelson]

Thanks you. I know that it's barely hanging in there. I told her that it was really bad that she took off the old pseudobulbs. I would be a lot more confident about saving it for her if she had not done that.

[bethmarie]

The roots you have left look viable. I don't see rot--just some old medium on them. I'd do what RJS suggested and also keep it in low to medium light. Too much light has desiccated some of my plants before they could produce new roots.

[MrHappyRotter]

Its almost hilarious -- the stories that I see and hear about the way people take care of their plants. In ideal conditions this plant is not beyond saving but for all practical purposes, were it mine I'd just toss it. Good luck though.

[bil]

With ones like this, I just put a twist of spagnum around the roots, only a tiny bit, and then pot it in small bits of bark, no fine stuff so it is easy to breathe.

I wouldn't kill myself to save it. With what it has left, it ought to throw new roots, and if it can't, then it's as good as dead anyway.

In cases like this, the coup de grace is usually 'too much' water, especially.

I had a cantabrigia in a worse state, and under those conditions it came back from the dead.

[NatalieS]

With the new growth, it may recover, but I wouldn't expect it to flower anytime soon - possibly not for a couple of years. I have to agree with Bil - unless it's something special, I wouldn't go out of my way to save it.

If you pot it up as RJ suggested and just care for it along with your other plants, and it recovers, well then that would be awesome.

[spamelson]

I don't think that it is anything unbelievably special. I don't remember what the flowers look like, and I think that's the only reason that I would want to save it.

I know that it would be a project, but it might be a good feeling to see it shoot out a flower spike in like.... 5 years hehehehe.

[FSUOrchids]

I also agree that it's easier to just replace it, since it's almost certainly a standard Oncidium intergeneric hybrid