New bulb too crowded to grow?

[greenpassion]

I have two of what I believe are oncidiums or something close to that that I put into S/H over a year ago. I have several questions here, and am willing to risk sounding REALLY naive. The first one I guess is : What other orchids other than Oncidiums have pseudo bulbs, and grow like them? And how would I know what these two are without ever having seem them flower? Actually one of them IS spiking now, and I do thinks it's an onc. but the other one, although it has bulbs, is tending to grow wide, sort of sprawled out, not as upright as the one spiking. I will try to send a pic of these guys-but actually this post was because the sprawled one is trying to put out new bulbs, but it's tight up to the edge of the pot, and there's no room. Oddly, the other side has more room, but this guy seems to want to put up new growths where there's no room. So, yesterday I took it out of the pot, cleaned off the primeagra, and put it in a new pot, centered, so that the new growths will have room. Any comments about this? And the one that is spiking is also really having a time of it pushing new growth up, that is against the edge of the pot. Is this normal? I have a Rfdra. Jerry 'Pacific Empire' (Is that an oncidium hybrid? It has pseudo bulbs) that not in S/H (yet) has spiked and flowered last year, and has 3 gorgeous new growths, but no new bulbs. I think I'm on too many topics here. Sorry.

[RosieC]

There are quite a lot of orchids that have p-bulbs. I can't hope to name them all but things like Oncidium, Odontoglossom, Miltonia, Miltoniopsis and all the intergenerics between those. These ones are all classed as Oncidium alliance and grow very similarly to each other.

There are also Brassia, and I have a Brassada which I think is an intergeneric with an oncidium type can't quite remember.

The ones listed above all spike from the base of the bulbs, some Catteleya related orchids have p-bulbs that can look very like Oncidiums (for example Encyclia, or what ever it's now called). These can be mistaken for Oncidium alliance p-bulbs however the spikes come from the top of the bulb rather than the base.

Then there are things like Bulbophylum which, from the ones I've seen, seem to have more squat p-bulbs, and less leaves (one out the top of each bulb, not many around it) but also have spikes from the base. Bulbophylum can grow quite wide, but they are not the only ones that do.

To be honest it's very difficult to know what something is from just saying it has p-bulbs, there are just too many that do. However with practice it can be possible to tell the alliance even if not the exact genus (with so many similar in the Oncidium range). Someone might be able to point in the right direction if you post a photo.

As for potting, p-bulb based ones usually grow from one end, adding new p-bulbs from the previous newest ones. Sometimes they will produce two from one p-bulb and you will get two growing points in different directions, but generally there is a direction of growth. It's best to pot with the section that's actively growing in the centre and the older side of the plant towards the edge, so there is room for it to grow.

It's not always easy to judge, my Onc Sharry Baby is growing outwards because so many of the p-bulbs have produced multiple new ones it has about 6 growing points rather than one or two and they go every direction except back in to the centre of the plant.

[WhiteRabbit]

There's bunches of orchids with pbulbs ...

But, if you can post a pic, members might have a good idea what type it is ...

[IncurablePlantHead]

I purchased an Oncidium yesterday. The 4 inch pot wasn't exactly crowded around the edges of the pot, but the p-bulbs were crowded together tighter than I've ever seen. I think its just how that orchid likes to grow...it was covered with spikes.