Maxillaria tenuifolia shriveled pseudobulbs

[SydneyH]

Two or three months ago I bought a bagged Maxillaria tenuifolia on the clearance bench at Lowe's. I have no idea why it was on clearance because it seemed to be in great shape. It came planted in spagnum. It started putting out a bunch of new pseudobulbs and roots so I eddidn't change the media.

In the last couple of weeks, though, the pseudobulbs started getting more wrinkled. The spagnum makes me nervous and the humidity here means it never dries out some weeks. I decided to change it to a bark and spagnum mix where it could get more air. When I changed it yesterday, I was expecting to see a bunch of rotted roots. Instead I saw some of the most beautiful orchid roots I've seen in a while with some new growth at the tips. So my question is, why are the pseudobulbs getting shriveled and should I worry about it? I've now inspected the plant from head to toe and it looks pretty darned healthy otherwise.

Sydney

[camille1585]

Max tenuifolia is a water hog when it's growing, you can hardly overwater it! Old bulbs that got wrinkled will mostly stay that way, but if you gradually increase the watering you will see that the newer bulbs will plump back up. I also have mine in a mix of bark and sphag, and I'm watering it 2-3 times a week at this time of year. Our conditions are far from being comparable though (60-70% humidity, 75-85F lately), it does give you an idea.

[SydneyH]

Ah, so my fear of over watering it probably led to it getting under watered. That's okay, I think I'll like this better even if I have to water it more often. I don't see how it grew roots at all seeing how tight the sphagnum was packed in there.

Thanks, Camille!

[camille1585]

I was also surprised by the roots when I repotted mine. It used to be in pure bark, and I had to water every day and it still wasn't enough. I was expecting to find most of the roots dead from underwatering, and in fact it was quite the opposite! Tons of healthy roots!

[SydneyH]

The moss was packed so tightly in mine that I'm not sure how it managed to grow new roots. But then maybe it would have grown more roots if the moss wasn't so tight. It took a while to pick the moss away without hurting the roots.

Sydney

[RosieC]

My yellow tenuifolia was in bark until recently and I was always scared to water enough as the bark was very fine and stayed wet a long time. When I looked at the roots though they were lovely and I was really surprised how good they were.

I've now mounted it, as I've been growing the red variety mounted for a while and can water that every day without worrying about over watering.

I'm only just realising how much water they can take. My mounted one DID plump up the p-bulbs once I got the watering right, but I'm not sure if that's because they hadn't been wrinkled for very long.