Cym problem

[escualida]

Hi all,

I'm going to start off by saying that I have no experience with Cyms whatsoever.

So I bought a Cym. Kiwi Midnight 'Geyserland' division from a seller on eBay. She sent it to me with 2 bulbs, one of which started losing leaves pretty much the day that it got here, the other wich is doing well and is sending up 2 new growths. I potted them both in Cymbidium Imperial mix from Repotme and one bulb on the Kiwi Midnight has been declining ever since. It has now lost all of its leaves and turned completely brown, I think it's dead. Here is a pic of what it looks like now:



It also seems to be sending up what might be a spike, because it doesn't look like the growths on the other one. Here is a picture:



My questions are: is this a spike? If so, should I let it keep growing and flower even though the plant only has 1 bulb and it doesn't look that healthy to begin with? And if I shouldn't let it flower, how do I go about preventing it?

Thanks in advance!

[NYCorchidman]

Well, I'm afriad to say that you got bad plants.
I say this because cymbidiums like many orchids, maintain older growths intact with leaves for a few years and only lose one at a time.
Yours is losing all of them at the same time and even the one last green growth is rather wrinkly.
It does have a new growth on it, whether it be a spike or not, which you will only find out with time.

Did the roots look good? were there lots of them?
You can nurture and it may come back to healthy condition over years, but at the moment, it does not look very good at all.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

This hybrid is such a complex cross, I have a difficult time telling you whether to keep it cool to intermediate or to keep it intermediate to warm.

I'll assume it was bred to grow just like many of the other Cymbidium hybrids - cool to intermediate.

Regardless, if you grow it around other plants to keep the humidity up, it should have a fighting chance.

I would also probably not grow it in such a large pot. Like a Phal, grow it in a pot that has just enough space for the roots to fit in the pot.

They like indirect bright light.

Check the roots as well.

This can make it, but it's not going to be an easy ride for you and the plant.

Generally speaking, a Cymbidium is one of those few orchids that can actually grow to become a huge colony over time starting with just one good pseudobulb.

[escualida]

Well there's bad news and there's good news. The bad news is the roots are all rotted. The dead bulb didn't have any roots, rotted or otherwise, and I can't remember if it came like that or not, but I am responsible for rotting the roots that this plant originally had. How did I get it into my head that these needed room to grow and that they didn't mind being overpotted? Oh well.

The good news is the little growth is not a flower spike, it's a new growth with new little roots, so I'm thinking this baby has a fighting chance.

It is now in a much smaller pot, thank you guys for your advice.

I'm going to keep an eye on the other plant that's doing better just to make sure I'm not overwatering it now. For some reason I thought Cyms didn't like to dry out completely, am I wrong? How do I make sure I don't rot the roots again?

[orchidsarefun]

I found with cyms that the pot should be deep - they sell specific pots for the miniatures ( long and narrow ) and for the larger varieties look for deeper, rather than wider pots.
They call them tree pots ? Allow an inch round the plant for new growth.
I gave away my standard cyms as I couldn't get them to reflower in my climate and now grow Chinese cyms. They appreciate windowsill growing. My ensifolium is growing like crazy. I had 3 spikes last year, 3 new bulbs and now I noticed another 3 starting.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Many Cymbidiums are not true terrestrials. They are "semi-terrestrials". Meaning they can be found at ground level, but they only grow in the top soil or ground cover levels, no deeper. Top soil and ground cover are light and airy. There are also some Cymbidiums that can grow on or around the roots of large trees. This is most likely how certain orchids evolutionarily went from being terrestrial plants to becoming epiphytes, (assuming that orchids had evolutionary beginnings as terrestrial plants, of course).

Some Cymbidiums are lithophytic. Others can be epiphytic.

This should kinda bring to light the growing them in a small pot thing that is similar with growing many of the epiphytical orchids.

[WhiteRabbit]

Those leafless dead looking pbulbs may not be dead. Can you peel back the dried bract foliage? Leafless brown back bulbs are usually still alive, roots or not. The plant may have prematurely lost foliage due to stress factors.

Cyms do like to remain moist, and I have found them (most anyway) to be difficult to over water so long as the pot drains well, and isn't standing in water for extended periods. That said, especially with an ailing plant, it's probably best to not have soggy media.

Cyms do get masses of crazy long, fat roots, so generally are potted in deep pots. I use standard 1, 2, 3 gallon nursery pots. But if there are few - no good roots, a shallower pot is good until there are more roots.

Mine get direct sun all morning, but an ailing plant would probably be best of in bright shade for the most part.

[escualida]

Thanks Sonya. Yeah it was definitely dead, completely dry, no roots, just dead. But at least it's growing another one with new roots, hopefully it will start to do better soon.

[Cym Ladye]

This may sound drastic, but since you are down to two shriveled bulbs, no leaves and one single struggling growth, I would remove the bulbs from the pot, remove all the roots and the leaf, clean the dry bracts from the bulbs VERY CAREFULLY, if you have not done so already, place a large handful of your damp mix into a 1 quart ZipLok bag, bury the lower 1/3 of the two attached dry bulbs into the bag, insert label and seal it up. Place it upright in a warm, well lit place and leave it alone. The bag will act as a mini greenhouse and the humidity will remain constant. Do not let sun hit it directly as it will cook it!

If it is going to survive, the new growth will enlarge, form its own roots and when it gets to the top of the bag it can be potted into a 3" pot and cared for as several of the other posts have suggested.

I treat all my back bulbs this way with great success. It also works as a last resort for plants as drained of life as yours is.

Good Luck

Cym Ladye

[james mickelso]

Not to dissent but if the new growth has any roots at all, other than potting it in a smaller pot, I would leave it alone. I also would monitor moisture very carefully until the new growth really takes off. Just my two cents. Also the old brown pbulb is sending what remaining nutrients it has to the new growth. I would bet that if this assemblage grows well this old leafless brown nearly dead pbulb will push it's own new grow next season. They are altruistic but only to a certain point.