Burr. Living Fire, a very loooooonnnngggg orchid!

[Rowangreen]

I got given a Burr. Living Fire 'Glowing Embers' at an orchid society meeting. 15 Pulbs, including two new growths. Unfortunately it was sort of growing in a V shape, with the new growth heading over the edge. To get it all in a pot as it was would have meant lots of spare space in none-growing areas. Plus the pulbs at the point of the V looked on the way out, and I thought probably the plant was heading towards being two plants in a pot. I decided it was time to attempt division... I think the photos will tell the story!

[WhiteRabbit]

Wow - that's crazy! I don't think I've seen Onc alliance grow in such straight lines like that before.

[Rowangreen]

The lack of roots on the newer pulbs was a bit of a shock too! I think maybe it was trying to get to a new pot to put roots in... There is a little new root growth on each of the newer sections, and the old roots seem pretty good, so I'm wondering if I'm going to end up with 4 straight growing plants!

[WhiteRabbit]

hmm - that is interesting about the roots, I didn't notice it before ...

[Rowangreen]

There were what I think might have been the remains of mealies (another reason for repotting and giving it a good wash, though I think it had already been zapped...), so maybe they'd eaten the roots on the bulbs that were slightly raised? Or maybe they'd been in air that was too dry for them? Anyway, hoping that it puts out lots of new roots. There were signs of root growth at both ends. Not what you expect to see though!

[terminalcreed]

Were you ever able to get the leafless bulbs to restart leaf growth?

[Rowangreen]

So updates... it turned out it wasn't mealies. It was baby scale fluff. Grrrrr By the time I realised what I had and that it was active (I think it only really became active with the warmer weather...) it had been in the same room with most of my collection. So I had to spray the whole lot. So far, touch wood, it looks like it hasn't spread.

The divisions ended up in quarentine in my bathroom. But I think I was a bit lax in giving them a second spray, and more scale turned up. I decided on intensive treatment: they got depotted, cleaned well, sprayed bare root and bagged with a wet tissue each. They've been in their bags a couple of weeks. I've not even opened them! So far I can't see fresh scale. I'm intending to repeat to be sure: actually was about to start looking up scale life cycle to get the timing right as I think they are due!

Anyway... before they went in the bags the division with the brownish pulbs continued to fade and I called it a day on that one before bagging them. The star has been the other leafless one: that's got two new growths and root growth. The others the existing new growths have grown a bit, only one has fresh root. I think root growth has improved since the radical scale treatment and bagging, so hopefully they are scale free now...