Help with Oncidium Sweet Sugar, looks normal?

[NYCorchidman]

Originally Posted by camillenad

NYCorchidman i water once a week... but have no clue how they were taking care of it at the greenhouse that i bought it from since as i said thats how i got it.... but the bulbs haven't changed since then, 2 months ago. Only change in plant is yellow leaves and that tiny new growth.

Tucker85 Thanks for the advice... I will just keep an eye on it, but more yellow leaves are developing daily which worries me... hope the new growth makes it, fingers crossed!

Watering once a week isn't too bad, although it depends on how quickly the media dries out. I have some oncidiums that needs to be watered every other day to prevent pb from getting all wrinkled up.

The fact that it is growing new shoot is a good sign I think. Just give it time and see what happens. Yellowing leaves starting from the oldest pbs will be its natural cycle although none of my oncidiums do that except for Twinkle.
Yours could be Sweet Sugar, but it may not be. There are quite a few yellow dancing ladies that look very similar and each may have different growing habit.

[DelawareJim]

Camille;

I would gently shake it out of the pot or pick out as much bark as possible and inspect the roots. As mentioned before, it is clearly suffering from dehydration; either from under watering, or over-watering and the roots rotted away. Only inspecting the roots will tell you that. Oncidiums are tough, so it won't hurt the plant.

Not knowing the greenhouse where you bought it, they could have just top-dressed it with new bark when it started flowering and you could have mush underneath.

And for what it's forth, I have a "Sweet Sugar' I won in last month's raffle at my local orchid society and it has a couple of older leaves yellowing and dropping as well. I plan to move it into semi-hydro when it starts producing new roots.

Cheers.
Jim

[NYCorchidman]

The original post says she repotted after flowers faded and the roots looked fine. No need to bother the roots again. With once a week watering on a fresh media (or even old media), overwatering will not be the case. It is not good for the plant. It might as well be just normal for it that the leaves are yellowing as long as the newer leaves are green.

[camillenad]

Thanks Jim and NYCorchidman. The bulb that had the yellow leaves is all yellow now, so maybe it will stop there, i hope!!! And yes Jim i repotted after i got it n roots seem fine(I think!) Oncidium roots are short skinny and yellowish right? Dunno much about Oncidiums to be honest, but I loved this one and i want to do whatever it takes to keep it alive. Thank you so much,all of you for trying to help and giving me all this useful feedback. Really appreciate it.

[Zoi2]

Just my 2 cents: I would definitely take that plant out of your pot and check roots. A lot can go on in two months. Onc roots are thinner than phal or catt roots but they are not short and yellow.
When you repotted, did you feel the roots, were they firm?
Joann

[DelawareJim]

Originally Posted by camillenad

Thanks Jim and NYCorchidman. The bulb that had the yellow leaves is all yellow now, so maybe it will stop there, i hope!!! And yes Jim i repotted after i got it n roots seem fine(I think!) Oncidium roots are short skinny and yellowish right? Dunno much about Oncidiums to be honest, but I loved this one and i want to do whatever it takes to keep it alive. Thank you so much,all of you for trying to help and giving me all this useful feedback. Really appreciate it.

Healthy roots should not be short and yellowish. They should be long, skinny, and white with noticeable green tips. Or, white without green tips if they are not actively growing.

Cheers.
Jim