Maxillaria tenuifolia (Project 11 - Summer 2010)

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Izzie

The only time I have seen bulbs not re-plump, is with oncidiums. Once shriveled, always shriveled. I've had most success with re-plumping on my L. anceps, dens, and a little on my catts- those being only slight improvement, if they're severely shriveled.

Makes me want to research how the pseudobulbs physiology differs between those alliances, and see what "mechanism" the oncs lack that keeps them from re-plumping.

That's why I thought max bulbs wouldn't replump. On Oncs they usually always stay quite shrivelled, unless it's a young bulb. I increase the watering a tad and see if it makes a difference.

[Izzie]

Good luck! Mine has never replumped after dehydrating during shipping.

[kavanaru]

I think (based on my experience) is that the key to have a PB "replumping" after shribelling is having viable roots. This is easier with younger PBs and with plants with stronger roots. Note that I am not speaking about the presence or not of root, but of root which has not lost their capacity to absorb water... Most PBs have their own set of roots, and I am quite convince they cannot provide much water to other PBs...

[Call_Me_Bob]

ahh, that makes so much sense! thankfully mine has good roots, im not really worried

[Izzie]

There's definitely a basis to that, Ramon. I stand by my experience with the Oncs though- all of them have excellent root systems that weren't harmed by the underwatering, but the bulbs really collapsed. That's just what happened in my situation.

[camille1585]

Well, I decided to give mine a soak yesterday and then accidently left it in the bucket nearly all day. This morning the bulbs look much plumper, some of them have lost nearly all of their wrinkles. Poor baby, I was underwatering it!

[RosieC]

LOL... it's sooo easy to forget when you leave it in a bucket. I did that twice over the summer, once for almost 48 hours.

Great to know it's plumped up though Camille

[camille1585]

I meant to leave it only an hour or so, but then went shopping and did other things all afternoon. I didn't remember the poor Max until dinner time! In France I would very often forget that my mounted orchids were soaking, so ended up using a timer to remind myself to go take them out of their bath. Forgot to bring the timer with me to the Netherlands....

[camille1585]

Ever since getting my Max in September it looked like it has been sitting there doing absolutely nothing. But this morning while watering I noticed little bulbs peeking out of some of the new growths. So it has been growing, but verrryyyyyy slowwlllllyyyyy. Nice to know it doesn't hate me!

[RosieC]

Cool

I can't decide if I'm imagining it, but I think the base of two of the growths on mine are very slowly fattening