2 pseudo bulbs on my brassia turned yellow and soft overnight

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

Two bulbs on my brassia just turned yellow and soft. They are the oldest bulbs on the plant. It happened right after I watered it so I’m assuming that’s the cause. I don’t think I’m over watering. I have a wooden skewer in the pot and I water when it is just damp. Brassia do prefer to stay a little wet right?

[Ray]

I would cut the rhizome between them and the healthy part of the plant, then using a Q-tip, carefully dab cinnamon on the wound, being careful to avoid getting it in the roots.

[estación seca]

You're not watering it enough. The pseudobulbs shouldn't be that wrinkled.

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

That’s definitely been my biggest struggle with this plant. How often should I be watering? How wet do brassias want to be? Last time I repotted there was a lot of root rot. It’s in small and medium bark with a little moss and black volcanic rock. Should it be in different medium?

[estación seca]

I would not repot until the next time it makes roots with new growth. I would pot deeper in the pot so the newest roots are below the surface. Some Brassias climb as they grow; the oldest pseudobulbs may be deeper to ensure the new growth is at an appropriate depth.

I don't think mixing sphagnum with bark is a good idea. Others disagree. It can obliterate air spaces needed by the roots. That said, happy Brassias in good growing conditions use so much water they often do well in 100% sphagnum soaked at each watering.

I wonder whether your plant's roots were rotten. That is pretty rare for Brassias. I don't cut off roots even if I think they're dead.

What are your growing conditions? Temperatures? Humidity? Do you know whether your plant is a warm/hot grower, intermediate/warm or cool/intermediate?

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

That’s interesting about them growing up. I will definitely repot like that next time. I find a very small amount of moss helps retain a little moisture and the humidity in the pot. I break up the sphagnum into smaller pieces so it’s more uniformly spread out without having to use much.

The roots were smooshy and saturated when wet and crinkly and kinda hollow feeling when dry. Very much the opposite of the healthier roots that were there.

I think the growing conditions are pretty good. I keep it indoors so it might not be as humid as it could be but I mist the roots with a very weak fertilizer fairly regularly and it’s around a lot of other plants so that helps. The spot it’s on gets good daytime sun maybe an hour of sunlight in the am. I do normal feeding with every watering. I don’t know about what kind it is though. I’ve attached a picture of it’s flowers. I’ve never actually been able to get it to rebloom so I’d like to figure this out 😅.

[estación seca]

I think it's not flowering due to a combination of insufficient water plus insufficient light. Brassias are very vigorous growers when happy, more than most orchids. Each growth normally produces two new growths after flowering.

[Girl_With_An_Orchid]

How much light do they need? Where it is now gets bright mostly indirect light. I put it in a spot where it got several hours of morning sun but one of the leaves started to yellow so I moved it to where it is now.