Removing Sheaths from Pseudobulbs: Do you do it?

[thefish1337]

I'm somewhere in the middle, I remove them when I remember to. I've heard various reasons why its beneficial to remove them. Some of my mini-catts I never remove them because they're too small to easily do it. Curious to hear people's thoughts on this one!

[rbarata]

I don't remove them and don't know why.

[estación seca]

There is no sheath fairy out in the forest to remove them, so I leave them alone.

[fishmom]

Fred Clarke told our OS that the sheaths are protective for the pseudobulbs, "like sunscreen" I think were the words he used. However , more than once I have found little mounds of mealybugs under a sheath after it was partly loosened by time. When they start to shred and come loose, I tend to pull them off.

[estación seca]

fishmom brings up a good point. Fred's plants don't come with bugs. I have had far more sunburn damage than bug trouble so I leave them.

[SouthPark]

If the sheaths don't appear to be creating issues for the orchids in the particular growing environment, then it's ok to just leave them there.

When removing things from orchids, the main thing is that the part being removed is old enough. If not, then it can be hard to come off, and even have slight chances of doing some damage to the plant when trying to remove bits and pieces.

I generally don't even touch my orchids (that mainly grow under a balcony). So if they have old sheaths, and old flower spikes etc ...... they just stay there on the plant - and maybe falls away eventually.

[Roberta]

If it is really dry and comes off easily, I'll do it (they DO hide scale and other nasties) but if it's not easy it stays. Generally, the old sheaths are a couple of years old before they are easy to remove. In nature, some of the lose stuff gets removed by birds as nesting material. But certainly THEY only take the easy, loose material and aren't particularly thorough.

[isurus79]

I always remove the sheath. I've done it so long its a mindless habit I do without even realizing it. I only notice it now as I'm editing my videos! lol I've actually caught myself removing the sheaths in commercial greenhouses!

[Merita]

I cut the sheath when it dries completely or when it looks ugly, for aesthetics.