Zygopetalum--badly divided, but recovering

[CJ Green]

I had a zygopetalum that was climbing out of its pot back in early March, so I decided to divide it. But I had no idea what I was doing. I planted two pseudobulbs in one overly large pot, got rid of a bunch of backbulbs, and then on a whim decided to save a single backbulb and see if it would do anything. Happily, there is now some nice growth going on--there's even a tiny shoot emerging from near the base of the old leafless backbulb. It will probably be ages before I see flowers again, but I'm excited I didn't kill it.

[estación seca]

It is growing nicely.

In the future, leave the back bulbs attached unless they are brown and dead. They are food stores; and, when the plant is happy, back bulbs can make new growths, which quickly leads to a bigger plant with a much better flower display.

When you must divide a plant for size reasons, keep at least 4 growths together. It will establish and bloom much faster.

Your plant will likely survive, but will take quite a while to recover.

[CJ Green]

Thank you! Yes, I learned later that it was not a good idea to get rid of those backbulbs. On the upside, I feel like the tiny growth from that single bulb is a bonus, even though it'll take a long time to grow. Btw, I just read your response to wadeduck's post on the welcome board--what a depth of knowledge you have about orchids!

[estación seca]

You will soon too.

[murph7]

Any reason to avoid repotting it in a bigger pot? Now you have two pots, so I guess space was not the main issue.

[CJ Green]

It's just that orchids usually like to be pretty snug in their pots, and if you put an orchid with not too many roots in a large pot it's easy to overwater it. I'm not sure if that's a particular problem for zygopetalums but in general I've noticed that the advice is not to use too large a pot. Fortunately it seems to be working out OK anyway!