Repotting oncidiums

[hannabea]

Originally Posted by estación seca

If you tend to overwater, use the smallest pot that will hold the roots. If you often forget to water, use one a little larger.

Thank you estación seca for that super quick reply! I think I tend to be an over-waterer, so I will go for a smaller pot.

[ramonypony]

Originally Posted by Jenni929

Recently bought a couple oncidiums on blow out. They just finished blooming and their stems turned brown and I cut them off so thts the stage they r at. After reading around online Im a little concerned about what it's potted in. It's potted in crumbly moss and it seems ridiculously tight like a tight ball of moss tht I can't even finger through. Even though it's not at blooming stage should I be repotting it? If so should I get more moss or bark?

If the media is not too broken down I would advise you to wait until you see new roots are growing out of the newest pbulb to repot. I find oncidiums to be more difficult than others, like phals or cattleyas, when it comes to repotting, because they like a lot of moisture and have very fine roots that are easily broken. If the new pot doesn't provide as much moisture as it was used to or prefers it can set the oncidium back. Or if there is too much moisture and most of the roots were actually dead or were killed off by the plant after repotting you can have a mold/rot problem. I've experienced both these scenarios in the past.

I would recommend moss or fine bark, or a mixture. I use moss and fine bark, perlite optional. If you can't find small bark, moss will be good as long as it's not packed too tightly and allowed to mostly dry between waterings. Bark alone dries out too quickly for my oncidiums and I can't keep up with the watering and they resent me for it and shrivel up like raisins.

---------- Post added at 04:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:52 AM ----------

Originally Posted by hannabea

Instead of starting a new thread I'll post my question here since it's about Oncidiums and repotting. I have Nelly Isler which doesn't have a a lot of healthy roots. It is currently potted in a 12 cm pot. I am planning on repotting it next week in fine bark and spaghnum moss.

Should I use the same size on the pot, or is it better to size down because it has so few roots? It has three pretty small pseudobulbs and one new growth which is very small. I think all the pseudobulbs are old, so it won't rebloom on those.

I've heard Nelly Isler is tricky, I killed one in a couple weeks. It was too hot and had no good roots. If it's not growing roots yet, try to keep the air around it very humid, you might even want to do a little makeshift humidity chamber until it gets going.


EDIT- I just realized these posts are weeks old, I'm very bad about looking at dates, oh well, I'll leave this here...