Onc. Dancing Lady bag baby
 

Stopped by Lowe's today and decided to take up my old bosses offer to get these orchids for .50.

This one is just perfect. Tons of healthy roots and five pbulbs. I can see one old flowering spike in the largest bulb and it currently has one new growth going.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d8...y/IMAG0009.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d8...y/IMAG0011.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d8...y/IMAG0013.jpg

Just so ya know, I staked it a little better so its not leaning to one side now. Little bugger is a lot heavier than I though.

Nice buy Josh. That pot is going to be way too small for the plant. These plants grow like weeds, you'll be repotting it in about 2 months.

Bill

Nice looking plant! I'd sure be taking up an offer like that too!

It was the only one I had that was bigger than the one it came in. Plus, I hope it'll dry out a little faster.

Also, the tag says onc grower ramsey on it. I was a tad excited when I wrote the title.

50c??? Wow! What a deal. You'll have to post some pictures when it blooms.

Yea, it is a deal for sure. Considering how much you would pay online plus shipping I was happy.

Any ideas on when it will bloom?

What a bargain! And Gower Ramsey is gorgeous. I used to have one and it was a very vigorous grower. When the plant gets large the sprays of flowers can be 5 ft or more.

5 ft???? Geez.

My wife still hasn't noticed the new plant. Lol

I got a oncidium sharry baby "sweet fragrance" at lowes and it cost me 2 bucks. But mine looks way worse. :(It's still fun to get cheep chids though. I dont know how they make any money on there plants but it's not my problem. I still like to rescue the little guys:biggrin:
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That's a steal for 50 cents!!! Happy growing!

Ok, so I've had this girl for a week. One of the bulbs is starting to wrinkle a decent bit but the largest is still completely firm and the smallest two are fine as well. It dried out in about 5 days and then I watered it. Any suggestions?

What????????????Where??????????????????how???????? ????50 cents....you have got to be kidding. What's the secret?

Just got to find the old plants that still look good and talk to the manager. I used to work there so I just called him up and he let them go. The box stores have HUGE, HUGE markups on the plants. If you think about how many they order PER store and then multiply it by a good thousand, you know they get great discounts.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d8...y/P1050586.jpg

Took a pic today. Now, is this normal or not? This one was wrinkled from the getgo but its getting a little more as time goes on. It takes about 4 days to "dry" out before it gets watered again. Should I move it to a clay pot? Whats the deal here?

It sure had nice roots from the looks of your original pictures. Are you sure it is drying out thru the centre? Maybe it is staying too wet. Is it in only moss? I usually put my oncidiums in a mix of fine bark and often a bit of moss and some perlite or similar. I don't let them get very dry in between watering but they can't stay too wet either.

Its in a bark mix. I might repot it with a few packing peanuts in the middle but its been drying out pretty uniformly for me so I dont know whats up. All of the other pbulbs are fine and firm.

I would consider not disturbing it then. It is likely the oldest pseudobulb and maybe resented the repot. It may wrinkle to a certain point and stay that way and still support the rest of the plant. My pseudobulbs are wrinkly on my dancing lady Oncid. So long as it doesn't change much more, I wouldn't worry.

Thats good to know. It does seem like its the oldest because of its placement and the leaves look the most beat up. I will watch the other 3 and see where it goes.

Thanks.

Good luck with it!

Well, I noticed the biggest bulb was starting to wrinkle on me today. Im not sure what is going on. It takes about 3-4 days to dry and Im watering before it gets bone dry. The temp range is from 64-78.

Any ideas?

What were the roots like and did you repot it? If not, I suggest you take a look at the roots to see what is happening. I've noticed some of mine do this on the winter, especially the older bulbs.

I repotted it when I got it. The first post has a picture of the roots when I did the first repot. I dont want to disturb them again if I dont have to. I had to cut zero off as none were rotted when I got it.

Its only been a little over two weeks so Im going to assume its something Im not doing right. lol

Yeah, tons of nice and white healthy roots.
Gower Ramsey will grow well for you. and yes, it does produce super duper long flower spike. Be ready! :)

I like it, but since it tends to get too tall, I have a Sweet Sugar instead. :)

Are you sure its not staying too wet in the centre if you are watering that often? Is there any new growth? Oncid types for me do take a step backward from re-potting for me sometimes. But they will usually hold on until new growths take over, which of course is the best time to re-pot. Have you tried some rooting hormone like K-L-N?

Yea, I'm using a skewer to check and only watering when it's barely wet.

I think I'm going to pull it out and check to see if there is some rot later tonight. I don't think that there is but it'll allow me to soak in ST as well. It's the only orchid not doing good for me so I can't figure out why.

Well, still not good. The roots looked great when I pulled the plant out yesterday. There was 2 that I had to cut off out of the whole mess.

I guess Im going to let it get even drier before I water it again.

Maybe mist it lightly in the meantime unless it is prone to spotting. Are there any new growths? I think sometimes the old growths don't adapt well to re-potting and its the new growths that happily grow roots into the new media and keep things going. But if the existing roots are healthy, they shouldn't have too much trouble taking up moisture in the new media. Maybe soak the pot for a few minutes when you water. Then let get close to dry before doing it again. That way for sure the roots are coming into contact with water. How about a heat mat to help the root zone. Just throwing out some thoughts here.

Its already on a heat mat. Under a HO T5 that is about 6" above the main leaves. Humidity stays around 60%. Temp varies from 64 to 78.

There is one new growth and its still doing good. Its the only one that isnt showing signs of neglect actually.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d8...y/P1050599.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d8...y/P1050597.jpg

The new growth is there on the left. The oldest is the one that is really wrinkled now. The brown spot on the old bulb leaf has been there since day one so Im not worried about it.

It doesn't look that bad. My Onc. Jiuabao Gold (a dancing lady one) did the same thing. They shriveled somewhat after I re-potted and it hasn't gotten any worse. I think it will be fine.

The new growth is now shooting out about 10 new roots. The pbulbs are still shriveling but they are holding steady and no leaves have turned yellow or died so Im assuming its just adjusting to its new media.

It sounds like it will be OK. Sometimes when a plant is healthy looking I'm reluctant to re-pot in case it becomes unhappy. But I guess waiting till it IS unhappy is a mistake. I think I stress about my orchids a lot :)

Yea, it was just in way too small of a pot. Truthfully, I've got it in too small of a pot as well but it should do for at least a year or so.