need tips for oncidium twinkle care

[dendro king]

hi,
its been a great week this week!!! lots of new orchids!!

the plant i have is nearly FS or maybe it already is!!!
it will need repotting soon and i was wondering what to pot it into.
all help appreciated!

[Leafmite]

My onc. Twinkle is in small red lava rock in a small net pot. My orchids are put outside in the summer and in winter, my house is cooler so lava rock and the net pots are perfect for me.

[cbuchman]

I pot mine in clay pots in bark. I am careful to pot in the smallest pot it will fit into as I over potted one and had rot problems; re-potting it in a smaller pot brought it back. I summer outdoors, but need to watch and make sure there isn't too much rain which keeps the pots too wet. I will try lava rock on the next re-potting based on the comment from Leafmite.

I have two colors of Twinkle one is lavender/purple and one is more pink. Both are fragrant with a "spicy" scent

[james mickelso]

The nice thing about lava rock is that repotting is only needed when the plant outgrows the pot. The rock doesn't break down. I've never had issues with fertilizer salts saturating the rock. And the lava cinder/rock falls right off the roots when I have repotted. The roots don't seem to adhere to it much. And because it absorbs little water, you can water more often, and therefore fertilize more often. Weakly of course. And the void space in the rock differs a lot and so water retention differs a lot too.

[dendro king]

thanks guys

[NYCorchidman]

It depends on your climate. Twinkles, like many oncidiums, prefer to be in moist condition.
All of mine came in moss and bark chips in too small a pot. I didn't like super tight small pot and the media was getting mushy.

Now I gorw them in a mix of coconut husk chips, charcoal, perlite, small hydroton balls, and some other minor elements. The main goal is free draining loose (lots of air) mix with good water retention.

Oncidiums grow lots of roots and super tight pot is not ideal for them.