Oncidium shriveling up, turning yellow!

[estación seca]

Jamie ZX, if they were too dry for too long, Oncidium pseudobulbs don't return to their shiny, smooth state. I think yours may be in that situation. The wrinkled pseudobulb still provides food to the developing new growths, so it is functional.

What is more important is whether new growths are normal. Your plant died back to a very small new growth plus one damaged pseudobulb. With good care, each time it will make bigger and bigger new growths, until it is back to normal size.

I have a NOID Oncidium that was filling a 6" / 18cm pot. It is the "dancing ladies" type with large yellow flowers. The spike was almost 5 feet / 150cm long. It was the first orchid I bought 2 1/2 years ago when I started up again with orchids. Somebody gave me a Trader Joe's gift card, and I decided to buy an orchid, so it has some sentimental value to me. About 18 months ago a rat ate all the new growths and chewed most of the older growths. I was able to salvage one viable pseudobulb. That one made a very small growth, which has just finished making a half-sized growth. I expect the next time it grows, the half-sized growth will make two full-sized growths, and it will be back to blooming size.

A rootless Phal with healthy leaves will usually come back. Is there any way you can raise the humidity around it? They are slow to root when it's arid.

[JaimeZX]

Edit: Roberta, thanks for that response... and that was sort of my thought with the misting. If there are no (or very few) roots in the bottom of the pot then I need to water where most of the roots are when that part is dry. If most of the roots are very shallow and the top dries quickly, then wetting the sphagnum is watering the shallow roots while letting the deeper media continue drying, right? Or am I totally off-base here?

--UNRELATED--

Why do all the guides and web pages and videos say to be careful to not get the leaves wet when these things grow naturally where they get rained on all the time? I find this confusing.
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Edit: Estación - thank YOU as well. That's good to know about the P-bulbs. FIVE FOOT FLOWER STALK?! Amazing.

The leaves on the dying phaleo are not looking good. They're turning greenish-brown and getting thin and leathery looking. Not sure what to do about that. I have moved several of my orchids out onto the porch. My German Shepherd is also an effective, but not full-time, squirrel deterrent. It's been quite humid the last week. Currently 92° and 65%. WAY moister than that at night.

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[Roberta]

Originally Posted by JaimeZX

Edit: Roberta, thanks for that response... and that was sort of my thought with the misting. If there are no (or very few) roots in the bottom of the pot then I need to water where most of the roots are when that part is dry. If most of the roots are very shallow and the top dries quickly, then wetting the sphagnum is watering the shallow roots while letting the deeper media continue drying, right? Or am I totally off-base here?

If there are few roots in a pot that is deep, it needs to be repotted... wet airless spaces are no good. Much better to just be in a smaller pot... The advantage of running water is that it is full of air - which the roots also need. Remember, if the bottom of the pot is wet, the air above is damp, and the new roots do like humidity. So if it dries out in 3 days, you can just water in 3 days.

Originally Posted by JaimeZX

Why do all the guides and web pages and videos say to be careful to not get the leaves wet when these things grow naturally where they get rained on all the time? I find this confusing.
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Temperature is the key here... If leaves get wet and it's cold, a formula for fungal infections. If you water in the morning and the leaves dry out before it gets cold (or if it doesn't get cold at all) no harm in wetting leaves. Where these things grow, it's warm. I grow mostly outdoors. Most get watered by overhead sprinklers, so of course leaves get wet. In winter, I don't run the sprinklers until 8 AM or later - when the sun is up and it's starting to warm up. For the rest of the year, the sprinklers run early, before sunrise to give the roots a chance to soak up all they can before the drying sun hits them. In the dead of summer, when it's really hot and nights are warm, watering in the early evening can be even better for the same reason. When advice is given, it's always wise to question the "why"... there is often more than one way to achieve an objective, so it's important to know what that objective is.

[estación seca]

I don't mist things. Water or water not, there is no mist. I would still water all the medium in your Oncidium pot every time I water. The roots won't stretch into an area that's always dry.

Gardeners pass on all sorts of silly nonsense that has accumulated over the years. People write books and repeat it without thinking. Plants have developed a host of defenses against things that want to eat them: fungus, bacteria, arthropods, birds, mammals. When the plants are in good health they are fairly resistant to most attacks.

Plants mostly get fungus because the environment is too humid for them, or they are weak. Many people try to conserve energy by not ventilating their greenhouses adequately, so the humidity is far higher than needed for many orchids. This promotes fungal growth. Or, the plant is not being grown well, so its resistance to attack is low. The best ways to prevent fungal attack are to grow plants well and not to have the humidity higher than necessary. Water on the leaves should not be an issue if it dries within a few hours.

Dip the stem of the Phal in water once or twice a day to encourage it to root. Even a single short root nub with a green tip will take in enough water to keep the plant alive long enough to make more roots. If you have any KelpMax to treat the root area, that would help as well. The Phal should be in shade, with no sun at all.

[JaimeZX]

Follow-up... the oncidium died.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

If you would like recommendations on how to grow Oncidium and which ones to grow, maybe I can give you suggestions on some easy ones to start with to get your feet wet. Right now is a perfect time to start because many of these orchids will be growing new roots and new shoots during this time of year.

JamieZX I have re-read some of your older posts in this thread and noticed that you had used 3% hydrogen peroxide on the roots of your now defunct Oncidium hybrid at some point in time. I'm sorry I didn't catch this earlier or I would've said something about a year ago. What's done is done, but I feel like I have to repeat this again, so bear with me if this is something you may have read from some of my other posts. Ever since I have found out how hydrogen peroxide behaves chemically, I have been rather opposed to advise using it on plants, particularly if the plants are struggling. I am also opposed to using hydrogen peroxide on the roots of the plant. There is a science behind this, and I have posted that science many times recently on the OB. But for this particular post, I will keep it brief and just say that hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidizer. Hydrogen peroxide in its active state will steal electrons from atoms it comes into reaction with. This stealing of electrons from atoms damages cell membranes when the hydrogen peroxide comes into contact with the cells because it sets off a chain reaction on an atomic level. That is not good for a struggling plant. For future endeavors in orchid growing, please discontinue the use of hydrogen peroxide as a disinfecting agent for your plants.

---------- Post added at 08:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 PM ----------

Try growing either Oncidium ornithorhynchum, Oncidium trulliferum, Oncidium cheirophorum, or Onicidium (Gomesa) kautskyi.

You can call Andy's Orchids for some of these. Others, you may have to look a little harder, but they're around. Start by finding the ones you can find in nurseries based in the United States first. Maybe when you get confident enough, you may venture to the more difficult to find orchids you can find from international sellers.

[Kim Brown]

Darn, I wish I had caught this earlier. I noticed a snail in my Cattleya maxima, so I poured hydrogen peroxide through the medium and let it fizz for a few minutes, after which I flushed the medium twice with rainwater. Hope I haven’t permanently damaged/crippled my plant.

[estación seca]

I don't think hydrogen peroxide reliably kills snails during a pour-through.

[Kim Brown]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I don't think hydrogen peroxide reliably kills snails during a pour-through.

So I've pointlessly robbed my precious Cattleya maxima var. coerulea of its electrons? Bummer!

The outcome is that I ordered a sibling of the same crossing, just in case I've hurt it. ...and I figured I needed a replacement for my Dendrobium victoria-reginae as well.

As for the snails, I only saw one, and that was a couple of weeks ago. I shall be monitoring the pot. So far, the new, delicate root tips look nice and green.