New development in orchid

[Surjasama Lahiri]

I've had this oncidium for about 3 months and this odd piece of development started about 2 weeks. It doesn't exactly represent a new stalk (of leaf) as the small stalks (of leaf) are of different shape and look. I have photos here of both the odd stalk and a new leaf growth. They are totally different.

So, what is this new thing? Any idea, anyone?

[Surjasama Lahiri]

In the first photo, the new stalk like thing is shown. The second photo shows a direct comparison with the new leaf-stalk.

[gnathaniel]

Looks to me like a fairly typical new growth, have previous growths on this plant started out differently?

[jcec1]

Originally Posted by gnathaniel

Looks to me like a fairly typical new growth, have previous growths on this plant started out differently?

I agree with the above.

[Surjasama Lahiri]

This is my first growth. I've never seen previous growth in the plant. This looks odd though.

[My Green Pets]

You are in for a treat. It will take 6 to 8 months for this new growth to become a fully-formed pseudobulb.

They start like this:



Then they grow and look like this:



They keep getting bigger and bigger:



Then, in about 5 months they will look like this:



And you will peek inside and see the pseudobulb starting to emerge!



And then you can start hoping for a flower spike!

Congratulations on the new growth!

[Surjasama Lahiri]

Excellent. Thanks for the info and images! Hoping to get some amazing developments. Do I need to make it have more fertilizer during this time? I dose it with NPK 20-20-20 once in every 2-3 days, lightly misting. It also receives water via misting. Nothing else. Fair to moderate sunshine and lots of shade too.

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[My Green Pets]

This looks to be a hybrid with Brassia judging from the tall pseudobulbs. I wouldn't change what you are doing unless the plant doesn't seem to be growing well. About fertilizer, are you mixing at full strength? It might be too much. I fertilize my Oncidiums with a very weak solution. You should be able to look at the roots and tell if the fertilizer is too strong. If the tips are green and growing then you're ok, if the tips are dead then stop fertilizing, rinse the pot with lots of fresh water, and don't water again until the potting medium is dry.

[Surjasama Lahiri]

Here's the entire care info. :

Watered every morning, after the plant goes dry. Watered once a day, misted with atomizer.

Sunshine received in plenty during morning, and moderate to low in afternoon/eve. Lot of shade too.

Fertilizer (NPK 20-20-20) is in crystal form and is mixed at 1~2 gram/1 L and used in atomizer, again misted. Fert administered once every 2-3 days (after initial watering).

Temperatures currently ranging from 19/20 - 25/26 Celcius, humidity over 80%.

Checked the roots as you suggested, they are green and a few of the new ones white. They look all healthy and none of them show any sign of wither, ill health etc.
Lastly, the plant including the new 'formation' is growing very fast everyday.

I'm assuming you're going to tell me to continue this treatment.

---------- Post added at 08:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:21 PM ----------

On another topic, when I purchased this plant, the guy told me that this was a dendrobium!!! Later I checked and confirmed it to be an Onc! Cheers!

[My Green Pets]

My first inclination is that watering every day in a bark mix is too much. The bark absorbs water and the roots could be too wet. The fertilizer sounds very strong as well. To give you an example, I mix my fertilizer at about 1/10 the concentration you describe (or less!)

However, if this seems to be working, I can't really suggest that you change anything. I can however give you something to read:

https://www.aos.org/Default.aspx?id=202