Oncidium help it/they are a NoID.
 

:(
I have decided to give away my Odonto NoIDs and some of my Oncidium alliance because I cant give them what they need to get them to bloom/rebloom as nice as the growers do, which tells me I cant have them. I have kept a few out of pure love and this is 2 that have with the same problem. The purple Odonto NoID is in a relatively medium grade media with fur bark, some fine regular bark, some small chunks of Charcoal and some more soil feeling dirt. I water about once a week when the soil is damp. Should it dry more? It has the root rot as well, just like the pick of my red NoID.

This pic shows the red Oncidium NoID, it shows identical to whats going on with the purple. What can I change? i water both at moist level in the mediums. :thanx:

I'm terrible with Oncidium alliance orchids... or used to be. Never could find the balance between overwatering and drying the roots out completely. Until about 3 months ago I tried semi-hydroponic method on several plants that were barely alive. They all seem to love it; I have multiple growth on all my Onc'ds. You might want to give it a try. My plants are still far from thriving, but with new growth and roots everywhere, I think they'll turn around. I hope yours will, too.

Wrong pot. Wrong media. Watering too much. Pot size is correct. Same size plastic or clay pot with good size drainage holes. Warm, medium light levels, breeze, Courser media. Let dry out almost completely then water heavily, then let dry out completely. To get them to flower you have to give them less nitrogen when they get as tall as the older leaves. Then more phosphorus and potassium, with less nitrogen. Simple.

Thank you James And Lana.
 

Lana I have been wanting to try semi hydroponics. It looks very effective and I do love Oncidiums, especially the Odonto flowers. I am far from being as good with them as Phals but I admire them so I've decided to minimalize them to really focus on them.

Thank you James. cut and dry and I like it.

Practice makes perfect though. I used to be terrible with Oncs, and thought I'd just stick to Phals. I hung on and continued to attempt to keep them alive, then one day I suddenly figured them out (don't know how that happened!) I'm happy I stuck it out, I love my Oncs!! :)

They are one of the easier ones. The noid looks like a miltassia that I used to have. If you are having problems, s/h could be worth trying. I had trouble with reed stemmed epi until I put them in s/h. Now they all look happy and one has been blooming for over a year.

Beautiful flower, don't give up.
Like others, I had trouble keeping wet/dry balance with oncidiums. They can be finicky. At times it seams some of them just don't want to cooperate. When they do flower though, it will be all worth it.
James got good advice or you could do S/H. I would try different methods to see what works.

Hi Tiffany, I was looking at your medium and it looks alot like there's sphagg in there to me and very little bark and soil is a big no no. I know you are in nevada, but I would diffinitly try with more bark of varying sizes, especially if you over water until you can find something that doesn't dry to fast or stay too wet. Also from what I understand when you have very few roots and no new growth that is not the time to change to s/h. I would go for change all of the medium out and start fresh..now is the time they should be starting new growth. Goodluck!


I also have several (too many) onc and alliances, my peggy ruth carpenter looks something like yours

Cheryl

Tiffany,
I have several oncidium that I haven't been able to get to bloom and were not thriving. This spring I tried S/H and it has caused all but one plant to grow tremendously. I'm hoping I can get them to flower this year as I bought bear root plants and still don't know what the flowers will look like.

Tiffany- you mentioned how you water once a week when the soil is damp. You might want to wait longer than one week if the soil is damp. The root rot results from potting media staying too wet and not enough air in it.

Oncidiums need lots of water but the media should not stay damp. Many of oncidium alliance I bought came in 4 inch plastic pot with fine grade media (still don't know what it is, but look like peat moss or something of that sort). I believe that type of media work well for seedling.

I water mine everyday or at least every three days, but then mine are potted in very fast draining & airy media. I am eventually going to switch to s/h/.