Dried bracts and nectar...a hard lesson

[papayj]

I found that my Coel. nitida was in a weird sort of trouble....the papery bracts covering its newer pseudobulbs had been soaked with nectar (it is a prolific producer of nectar btw) and then dried up. The end result is that the bracts got so hard like a plastic and now they are preventing the pseudobulbs from growing, clamping around the bulbs like a vise. Not to mention mold growing and rotting one of the pseudobulbs. I soaked up the whole plant to remove those bracts, and I broke two pseudobulb during the process -- they had became extremely brittle.

The lesson learned here is that I need to frequently wash down the plant to remove the nectar covering the bulbs, and remove dried bract as soon as possible.

[Ray]

I'm going to disagree with your assessment. A coating of dried sugars is never going to be strong enough to prevent plant growth, and even if there was something that strong and confining, the cells would simply grow around the constraint.

You have other issues.

[Keithj]

I have to disagree, Ray. A glue doesn’t have to be strong to be hard to break. A weak glue over a large area will also do that.

I bought a small Coel. cristata var. alba a few weeks ago. It had a vigorous new growth that was growing normally and a second where the sheath had not released properly. The growth had emerged only on a small area. Since I’ve released it the leaf has expanded but is still ( and probably always will be) crinkled. The pseudobulb looks OK so far. The plant has put out two more new growths from the base of the affected growth and they’re growing well so I don’t think the cause was genetic.

The photos show it as I received it and as it is today.

Keith

[papayj]

Well in my case, the dried bracts has completely encircled pseudobulbs and tightly glued together. It was nearly impossible to tear it apart without soaking it for several minutes or using a sharp knife. It was like a paper wrapping around a melted candy--you know, it can be surprisingly hard to unwrap a partially melted candy, sugars acting like some glue, holding the wrap together...

[Ray]

I was basing my assessment on some oncidiums I had that had been planted too deeply in LECA - instead of being somewhat egg-shaped like normal, narrower at the top, they developed a one-inch, dimpled "stalk" at the bottom of the pseudobulbs, then resumed a normal shape above that.

I guess the thing I am still having a hard time understanding is the damage - not deformity; that's common - that papyj's plant experience.