Aliceara advice…

[lambo1972]

Hello all and Merry Christmas! I have posted about this Aliceara Hilo Ablaze ‘Hilo Gold’ orchid before and I’ve read a lot about them but I am starting to get a little nervous about this one. I have included a 4 picture timeline from early Oct to this week so Ill give you some history. This orchid was shipped to me in Oct from Hawaii. It was potted in a medium bark mix. All noticeable roots were dry, shriveled and crusty brown and the bark mix was extremely dry. I have always read not to repot. After a couple of weeks, and seeing no change in the roots, I bit the bullet and repotted it in a small bark mix made for oncidiums. The roots did in fact look bad but it had a few good ones. After repotting, within a month, the small leaf which you can see at the bottom of the plant in the first two pics had dried up and died. One leaf was even attached to a small pseudobulb that also shriveled and died. Some leaves at the bases of other bulbs split and dried up. So the last pic, which was taken yesterday, one whole leaf of one of the main bulbs is going yellow and it is worse even today.

I’m afraid I’m watching this plant slowly die. Incidentally , this yellowing happened after the 1st time that I fertilized it with a balanced water soluble powder. I did follow the directions to a T. I’m a windowsill grower so temps go from 75-65. The humidity runs from 40-50%, but has been lower when the heat runs a lot. I have read this is normal for this plant and that repotting stress can cause these problems but I fear if this happens to the remaining bulb, I’ll lose the plant. One good note is that in the last couple of weeks, 3 roots are growing down the side of the pot that weren’t visible early on. So I feel like the plant is doing something good. I water it twice a week by soaking it and it seems to look about right for it.

Any way, let me know if there is anything else I should be doing? Humidity tray, more/less water? This is my first purchase of anything other than a Phal which do very well in our windowsill so I would hate to lose it. Thank you and Merry Christmas again!

[Roberta]

If you are seeing new roots, that's great. You'll likely soon see new growth as well. Moving it to medium that is better suited to your environment was a good thing, I think. There might have been some transplant shock if the plant wasn't putting out new growth. (Sometimes one has to repot even if it isn't the ideal time, to solve a worse problem) Your temperatures and humidity look fine. The yellowing after you fertilized is likely just coincidence. (correlation does not necessarily mean causation). If roots were bad, the plant would become somewhat dehydrated no matter what you did. But those older pseodubulbs are doing their job - reserves to keep the plant going until it could do new growth. Losing a leaf under those circumstances would be normal. New growth and new roots indicate recovery. Patience, patience. I think that you're doing all the right things. Don't let it dry out. (That's a big difference from Phals and Catts) It likely just had to catch up to its natural growth cycle.

[lambo1972]

Thank you as always Roberta! Your advice is always greatly appreciated and your words always encouraging. I have read a lot about this orchid and other oncidium intergenerics. I was thinking the stress and root loss got to it, but needed assurance that I wasn’t missing something. Merry Christmas!

[dbarron]

Yep, as far as I can tell from the photos, it looks fine. I agree, just transplant shock. Some of my oncs are expressing mild unhappiness with the world right now (low daylength, lower light due to clouds, and lower temps), but in a couple of months a surge of new growth will arrive as they get happier with spring.
Since PBs aren't wrinkled, it may not be 100% happy, but it's sure not 100% unhappy either.

[Ray]

Losing the leaves that surround the pseudobulbs is perfectly normal.

[lambo1972]

The plant is starting to grow some nice roots!