Rotting baby pseudobulb Oncidium

[monivik]

So this is the very first time I ever bought an orchid online, and I'm already regretting it. I should have emailed this company and complained right away.

I ordered an Oncidium Sweet Sugar online, about four months ago, and I didn't care about the fact that it had no flowers or flower spike yet, I figured that will come with time.

However I got one with really wrinkly pseudobulbs and a rotten pseudobulb. Good thing I decided to repot the entire thing right away because if I hadn't I would have missed the other rotten pseudobulb which was much more far gone, and was lying under the medium, which is why it wasn't visible at all. Why would they repot the oncidium and leave one pseudobulb under the medium, makes no sense to me?

Anyway I thought once I cut away the rotten pseudobulbs and repotted it, I figured it will recover eventually. So imagine my joy when I say not one, but two baby pseudobulbs coming up. So now it's a little further and the baby bulbs are a little bigger now.

However now to my big disappointment I've just discovered that one of the baby bulbs has gone rotten!
I thought it had a strange color compared to the other baby bulb... I tried to sqeeze it and it's soft and moushy. This can't be good. I'm also just noticing that the mother pseudobulb that this baby one is attached to is starting to change color too. I think this one is going to rot too I'm afraid. I'm going to have to cut these two away then.

On the positive side I've still got one baby bulb that looks good.

[aliceinwl]

I don’t know if this is what is going on with yours, but I got a Sherry Baby in similar shape and did what you did. When I saw rot on a new growth there was enough material to divide the plant into healthy and unhealthy. The rot did eventually kill the other pseudobulbs in the unhealthy division but the other division is rot free and looks to be well on the road to recovery.

[monivik]

Originally Posted by aliceinwl

I don’t know if this is what is going on with yours, but I got a Sherry Baby in similar shape and did what you did. When I saw rot on a new growth there was enough material to divide the plant into healthy and unhealthy. The rot did eventually kill the other pseudobulbs in the unhealthy division but the other division is rot free and looks to be well on the road to recovery.

Thank you. Yeah, what I've done now is that I've cut away the rotting pseudobulbs, I put cinnamon powder on the open wound (rhizome). However, I haven't repotted the plant yet. The thing is I repotted this Oncidium not too long ago.

The other thing is I've got another problem affecting all my orchids and plant (I've only got one other plant). I've got a fungus gnat infestatation!!!
They are literally everywhere! I just bought this fruit fly trap, the little bottle with liquid in it, I've got a few of those spread out. I hope that works. But does this mean I have to repot all my orchids and the plant now? This is so disappointing. I recently (within two months time) just repotted all my orchids.

In regards to the Oncidium again. I think I might have to cut away part of the rhizome eventually though, so I might have to repot anyway. If the rhizome is bad (maybe that's why the pseudobulbs kept rotting, even after I took the rotting ones away) I can better get rid of that part so that it won't keep spreading righ? Besides I've got a huge gap now with some psedobulbs on one side now, and then one lonely pseudobulb by itself on the other side. Would that one pseudobulb be able to survive on his own (if I separate it)? I thought you need a minimum of 3 or 4 to make it keep going?