Potting questions—Onc. Heaven Scent

[greenhouseFrog]

I grabbed a couple of Onc. Heaven Scent ‘Redolence’ on clearance at a local nursery—one is growing in all sorts of different directions and the other is considerably smaller.

For the smaller one, I just dropped the whole thing into a new pot, container and all, and backfilled in with some finer bark—I figured it would just spill over into the new media once the new growth starts putting out roots.

The larger one has me feeling less confident for a few reasons: the main reason is that one of the new growths looks like it’ll get pinched between it’s parent pseudobulb & the lip of the plastic container it came with—I don’t know if I should just remove the plastic container and drop the root mass in and backfill accordingly or whether that would be too traumatic. Also, since it has new growth growing in different directions, should I just place it in the center of the new pot or should I still try to orient the older back bulbs towards the back of the pot?

Smaller one got potted—I oriented the new growth towards the center.

The bigger one—it’s got new growths going forward, side to side, and a new spike, too!

New growth I was worried about getting pinched…


Thanks in advance!

[Ray]

The current potting medium of the larger one looks pretty old, so I'd unpot, remove as much of it as possible without damaging the root system, then repot into a larger pot with fresh medium.

I cannot say of that was the case with the smaller plant, but that container looks a bit large for the size of the plant.

[greenhouseFrog]

Originally Posted by Ray

The current potting medium of the larger one looks pretty old, so I'd unpot, remove as much of it as possible without damaging the root system, then repot into a larger pot with fresh medium.

I cannot say of that was the case with the smaller plant, but that container looks a bit large for the size of the plant.

Thanks for weighing in, Ray!

If I remember correctly, I think the smaller plant had the same, almost potting soil-like, media but I can’t be sure of its age—I can always dig it out and dump the old media off so it can start fresh.

My thinking behind the overpotting was that it would fill out quickly, but I have smaller pots I could use if over potting is going to set it behind!

[estación seca]

Use a pot with room for two more growths the size of the current plant. If you often forget to water use a slightly larger pot.

[greenhouseFrog]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Use a pot with room for two more growths the size of the current plant. If you often forget to water use a slightly larger pot.

Thanks, ES! I’ll use the smaller pot—I think it holds about half the volume of the one it’s sitting now! If I get lazy, I may consider setting that pot into a water dish or something!

---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 PM ----------

I wasn’t really looking forward to making a mess tearing this down, but it’s worked out well so far



---------- Post added at 03:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------

And the finished product…the media seemed like some kind of soilless mix full of perlite—the roots were pretty firmly anchored in it, so I rolled the root mass around in my hands to loosen it and hosed the subsequent loose material out until I got to what seemed like a sphagnum plug. I didn’t want to disturb the roots any more than I had, so I left the sphagnum and potted it up! I definitely broke some roots doing this, so I’m curious to see how it recovers!

[estación seca]

Oncidium hybrids can be in near-constant growth if temperatures permit. They use a lot of water when pushing new growth. The risk of root rotting in old medium is very small with these, and I only shake off the old stuff a little. I frequently will wind up just putting the entire root mass into the new pot, and backfilling.

[greenhouseFrog]

Originally Posted by estación seca

They use a lot of water when pushing new growth.

I was actually thinking of setting the pot in a dish of water in a very barebones semihydro setup—I’m just starting to containerize different things and I’m experimenting with a few things along the way!