NOID oncidium (like Twinkle, not sure) - hole in pseudobulb and moldy leaf

[astrid]

Hey everyone!

I tried posting this a few days ago via mobile, but my pictures weren't loading properly and I was very ill and slept most of last week away. Poor me, right?

I didn't have a chance to fix my post, but now I am posting again correctly (it seems a mod removed my old one– thanks mods!)

Anyway, I was away for 16 days from my babies and turned them over to a family member for care while I went to Hobbiton. She did a great job on the watering instructions I gave her, so I don't believe this is her fault at all.

This plant is the first plant I have ever split. It was just loaded with pseudobulbs! Really impressive! I split it into two and one plant STILL has 3 new growths and the other has two.

I purchased it about one week before vacation, so I haven't gotten to know it just yet, and I didn't have time to really observe it and see what sort of issues it may have.

**While I was gone, one plant from the division developed a little black hole in one of its older pseudobulbs. It freaked me out for sure! Since it was an old bulb, I just twisted it off and tossed it out, but I wonder why such a little black hole would form in the first place. Do you guys know?
Did I do the right thing in twisting it off?
What if I had left it?

**Additionally, one of the leaves from the center of a new growth was orange looking, so I pulled on it, and it popped right off! It had white fluffy mold and mush on it and I was really surprised that the rest of the new growth seems totally healthy and unscathed.

Was it perhaps just a stray splash of water that rotted this single leaf, or are there worse things going on that I should be concerned about?

**Finally, this plant has a problem with some leaf tips going black for me. They go blackish with an orange-ish border and it creeps farther and farther back along the leaf. I just cut a chunk of the leaf off when I see this, but it appears later on another leaf here or there and I wonder if there is anything I can do to stop this. What do you think?

[jcec1]

The leaf that came away looks like it either had mechanical or perhaps temperature damage and this is why it went mushy. As for black spots on leaves, most of my oncidiums have this. Mine, like yours are grown indoors, so will never have perfect conditions, so will never grow perfectly either. Overall, your plants look healthy, so I would try to fuss over them less, more damage can be done by 'mother hen clucking over her brood' than just leaving them be and letting them get on with it.

[astrid]

Originally Posted by jcec1

The leaf that came away looks like it either had mechanical or perhaps temperature damage and this is why it went mushy. As for black spots on leaves, most of my oncidiums have this. Mine, like yours are grown indoors, so will never have perfect conditions, so will never grow perfectly either. Overall, your plants look healthy, so I would try to fuss over them less, more damage can be done by 'mother hen clucking over her brood' than just leaving them be and letting them get on with it.

It is not black spots on the leaves. If you look at the picture, a 3mm hole formed in the pseudobulb, which is what was alarming to me.

Additionally, my leaf issue is not with black spots forming, but with actual tips turning black and the black/orange color creeps back along the leaf as though it is rotting.