Lycaste aromatica- divide or not?

[Helene]

Considering dividing this one- what would you do?

And that last banana-shaped bulbo- is there something wrong with that? (The plant didnt get care for many months)
Should I remove that, and put in a pot by itself, just to make sure?





Divide here?




Its really wet now, had to bath it to get it out. The roots a big brown mess, but seems to be more okay than they look.

[Helene]

Okay- what I'm thinking:

Yeah, you can divide this, actually sometimes a single old backbulb can give a new plant. But preferably atleast 3 backbulb in each division, 4-5 being great.

Unless you want one big plant- keep it as it is. I like big plants, but I like healthy plants, and I like plants more than the flower (okay- this one smells like christmas, cinnamon and stuff- so I like this one)

Well, if I divide it like I have shown, I will have one strong division with 3 strong backbulbs that looks healthy, and the banana thingy (considering taking that of, and putting it by itself- could be fun to see if it grows or not) and a division with 3 okay backbulbs, that might give a new growth with time and care- and then I can give that to a friend.

Gonna think a little longer, and then just go for it.

Lol- and last year I hadnt repotted any orchids, afraid to touch the delicate roots- last twelve months I have been doing all kinds of things with my poor plants😎😂

[Ray]

I'm with you on the division. The "banana 'bulb" was probably a response to reduced light levels, and is nothing to worry about.

I've seen plants decline and decline, producing smaller, misshapen pseudobulbs with each growth, totally rebound once given better treatment.

[Plodde]

Don't divide!!! I'm always a fan of specimen size plants! And a lycaste would be beautiful

[Helene]

I like them big aswell😊

^^
This got split in two when repotting- big girl- in a 70cm pot thing. Gonna put the big one in a new pot- without dividing. The smaller one (not small, but in comparison) I'm gonna give to my friend.

I plan on growing the division to a big one, only considering dividing it so I can give it to a friend. We dont have these orchids in my country- only phalaenopsis (like IKEA, and some shops sell cymbidium- and this year I've seen wandas. All of them are hybrids. To get other plants we need to buy from the orchid- society, they do some imports)

I know she likes this one, and since it was in bad shape a couple weeks ago, I needed to repot. And then I was thinking I could do both. Grow a new big plant, and make a friend happy☺️

Bought this from Denmark last year. Bought many orchids to be honest. Then I had something come up in my life that made me neglect all my plants for months.

Looked like this 13.january when I finally was back in buisiness😑 poor thing


Well. I think I'm gonna divide it- I was planning to give her a division when it was bigger, but since this happened, I can do it now- and then let the plant grow big and beautiful again☺️ Its better to disturb it a bit more this year, and then leave it be- than to keep disturbing it every time it settles?

Lol, yeah- and I do talk alot, even when its not in my language😜😂

[Roberta]

When you started to think about it, dividing would be OK... looking at it now, I think that you should report the whole thing, and see if it revives. It looks very desiccated - either it wasn't getting watered, or those bad roots caught up with it. I would suggest leaving it intact, to draw whatever nutrients it can from the old p-bulbs until it grows some new roots.

[Helene]

It looks fine now. The shrivelled p-bulbs are from 13.january- didnt water it. I had to revive it and had to repot- they plumped back- all of the p-bulbs.

[Helene]

I did it. I even took the banana bulb in a pot by itself. Not sure if that was a wise move, but I think the division thats left is so strong its gonna become a beautiful specimen size in time.

Here they are:

Bark with perlite- this likes it wet, have grown it almost s/h before, except that period I couldnt care for them.
A layer of moss on top to keep it moist, its dry as a desert in my house... (And I dont like having moss in the mix)



The second divison, not that bad, think its gonna work out nicely. Hopefully I can gift this later in the summer (I like to wait untill I see its settled in the new pot)


And the bonus one, just testing to see if a single bulb could make new growth. This is in only moss for now, will pot it when/if it makes a growth.


So, there it is. Now I only need to wait and see.
Happy growing😊

[Roberta]

They do look fine. I am glad that those pseudobulbs did revive. Yes, they do like to be on the damp side. Good growing!