Really wrinkled bulbs. What should I do?

[Elina]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and new to taking care of orchids. I would like to hear your opinion and advise about an orchid I got recently.

In the middle of February, couldn't resist the temptation and bought "Mini Orchid". There was no information about the specie, but basing on flowers and almighty Google it might be Odontocidium or Odontoglossum. I think...

Flowers looked like majority of pictures you can see by searching for Odontoglossum Margaret Holm (purplish ones). (I wasn't allowed to post direct link)

Either way... It looked promising as it had two bulbs and two new sprouts. But week after I bought it, bulbs started to wrinkle and no matter what I did, they remained like that.

After another two weeks one of the new sprouts rotted away at the base. I got suspicious that there is something wrong in the pot as I wasn't overwatering (did it once a week and removed excess water). It turned out that half of the pot was full of moss, so most probably it was too wet all the time.

I didn't cut old roots as I wasn't sure which ones were old. I repotted it by using the medium it was in (except moss) + old/broken bark. Also moved it to a place with more light and started to sprinkle it with water every morning, as I read you should do it, if roots are heavily damaged. Flowers wilted after 1.5-2weeks.

Almost a month has passed since then, there have been no changes. The sprout seems healthy, but there hasn't been any signs of growing.

Uncertainty is killing me - Is it dying? Sleeping? Already dead? Maybe growing?

I would appreciate any advise about what should I do with it? What did I do wrong while caring after it?

[No-Pro-mwa]

It doesn't look that bad to me. They like to be wet I think but air to the roots. It may also be sulking as I have heard some don't like to be re-potted. If the roots feel hollow then they are dead. So I don't know if you have roots or not.

I have a Wilsonara that I had killed all the roots but spaghed the bottom and kept it wet and it is growing lost of new roots. You may have to wait for your to start new roots. Orchids take allot of patients sometimes. Good luck.

[Elina]

Thank you for the information.

After all those articles with "How bad it is to have wrinkled bulb" it seemed like mine is pretty much doomed.

[Cntry]

Elina, welcome to the forum. Your orchid looks like it just needs some time to adjust to the new surroundings there at your home. As you will see yes they do sulk for a while but will bounce back. Water it once a week, add some kelp that will help the roots. You just need to make the kelp and water mixture weak. Use 1/4 of the recommended amount with a gallon of water. Give this to your orchid once a month. Then also once a month give it some orchid fertilizer, also weak like you did with the kelp at first. Make sure you water is running through the pot and coming out the bottom. Let it drain and put it back into your ceramic pot. Make sure your plastic pot has holes in the bottom so the water drains completely out. I hope this helps just a bit. Good luck with your orchid.

[NYCorchidman]

Welcome to OB!

Given your description and the pictures, your plant suffered major roots damage by wet moss in the pot.
The plant could not uptake enough water and the bulbs wrinkled up.
Slight wrinkles on this type of orchids plump back up once watering is done correctly but severe wrinkles never ever recover, but this alone does not harm the plant.
The rotted new growth is of concern, but good thing you had two of them and at least you have one still intact. Is that one growing at all?

Do you recall the color of the roots when you took the plant out of the pot? You should see lots of white (or whitish brown) ones.
Dead ones are very easy to tell apart from the live ones. Dead ones will feel like paper while the live roots won't easily bend (you will break them if you force to bend them) and feel rather firm to touch.

Place this orchid in a bright (but not direct sun unless it is a morning sun) warm (not hot as odontocidiums HATE heat, so I would say try and keep it under 27C day high).
Water when the pot is dry.
Hopefully the new growth will continue on with further developing. Once that happens, then these are rather tough plants.

Good luck!

[Elina]

Thank you very much for the information and greetings!

It is hard to tell whether the other new sprout is growing or not. I put some stones under the pot, so the pot was slightly tilted. The new sprout actually adjusted to the tilt. It does seem bigger and it has a little fifth leaf in the middle, but it isn't growing for weeks or is growing so slowly that it isn't really noticeable.

As for roots, if I remember correctly, they where ranging from whitish to brown. Should I repot it again, so I could remove old roots? Or better wait and see what happens?

After repotting I put it 50cm away from the brightest window (west side) I have. It gets direct sun light from around 3pm until 7pm. It is hard to tell how warm it gets there, but Phalaenopsis leaves next to it gets warm on the sunniest days. I will try to move it to less sunny spot.

Shall see how it goes.

[NYCorchidman]

They don't grow very fast but not that slowly either.
Give it time.

You saw some white roots. That's a great sign!
I would not mess with the plant. It needs to stay put and adjust to the new home and establish itself.

West window is not going to work very well for ondontocidiums. Simply too hot. Bright is not an issue, it's the heat.
Yeah, I would put some shade on it or move it away from the afternoon sun.

[Elina]

Seems like I slightly over-paniced here
There were still no changes in the leaves, so I gently moved the top of the medium. And there it was! A big, fat, green root coming out of the new growth! Had no reason to check further.

I think it will do just fine Especially as it will get moved to the outside when the right time comes.

[tarev]

My experience with these types of orchids, during warmer weather like temps in the the 70's and higher, they go thirsty big time. I do not know where your location is but in my area where we are just bone dry here being drought, so I really have to step up watering. But as thirsty as they are, I just do not like sphagnum moss, I just have them in bark mix less chunkier than what I would use for my Phals. Their roots are finer than Phals so a less coarse bark mix works better I think.

Those roots like lots of moisture, but needs good airflow too. I usually get my blooms in late Spring, though last year, when I have them indoors, some did a second flush of blooms in Winter.

There are times like my Wilsonara, I have to deliberately sit them in water, one time accidentally leaving them sitting in water for 3 days I think, and it grew better, the wrinkly bulbs plumped back, but not all the wrinkles went away, but it did improve. That is how I knew that these types of orchids are water hogs. So when summer is here, I deliberately sit them in water especially when we are nearing the low to high 90's. But I do not do this during the colder months.

They do like cool to warm conditions, so by late Fall to winter, I have to bring them in and they do well by our south facing window. During Spring to early Fall, they stay in my growcamp outdoors, to enjoy the warmer temps, lots of airflow around the plant and it is easier to water them there too.

As to fertilizing them, I use Miracle Gro Orchid Mist, and so far they are okay with it. I see improved root growth.