Onc. Heaven scent - wrinkling, rotting spikes, the whole 9!
 

This is a follow-up to a previous thread (Onc. in wrong medium)

The condition of my onc. is declining and I just cant see what Im doing wrong. :tapfoot: I am new to Oncidiums but have done research and know basic care. (questions highlighted for ease, Pictures related to all problems attached :biggrin: )

A few days after the thread, I decided to temporarily repot my Onc. Heaven Scent from the soil-like peat (?) it was in, into loosely packed spag. The peat never dried in my home environment and previous PB wrinkling was getting worse (I assumed its because the roots never aired out).
I was surprised to extremely healthy roots and managed to repot it back into the same 2.5in container comfortably. I also made existing air-holes larger in the container. I am planning on eventually getting the plant into semi-hydro or at least bark.
Any thoughts on Onc's in semi-hydro vs bark?

Anyways, The condition of its PB's are continually worse. Wrinkling is on all bulbs, new an old; Plus, one seems to be rotting.How do I take care of this, just remove? I have also spotted browning on a spike and darkening on leaf edges. Is that possibly mold, virus, etc.? Is it all related to the rotting PB?

Flowers are slowly dropping (no big deal) and I was considering just cutting the spikes off. Would that relieve the plant a bit, possibly slow its demise until I get the care down right?


Any tips in general to nurse this thing back to health?
Thanks again guys & gals.

How dry is it when you are watering? How often are you watering? Also, increase air circulation. If you have enough air circulation and the media is drying some on its own, you can water an Oncidium like this quite often to where it rarely actually dries out. Many oncidiums don't mind staying moist all the time, they just need fresh air to the roots all the time, so sometimes that means watering already moist media. Some may find this doesn't work for them, but mine do best when I water often and allow them to dry rarely.

I have been watering about once a week, and its still rather wet when I water. There is a fan in the general area, but not pointed directly on the plant - there is still a breeze nonetheless since I see the flowers moving in the wind.
Humidity between 45 and 55% and room temp. is a constant 69F (cant control thermostat)

Im possibly under-watering?

That room air seems to be a little low for the daytime temp. You might want to see if you can get that up a little. Mine get to about 64F at night and almost 80F in the daytime and they are putting on new growth like crazy. The spag also looks very wet. I would try to dry it out pretty quick. Good luck. It is a very nice plant.

The terms "underwater" and "overwater" can be misleading because it depends on the plant, pot, media, light, air circulation, temperature, etc. I would pot it in something that dries more quickly in your conditions so that you can water more often and get more air to the roots. S/H might be a good option for you, although I don't have experience with that.

I cant control the room temp. Its automatically set to 70F in the winter and 78F in the summer. Would a seedling heat mat make a difference?

Oncidiums don't like to be kept wet. It's way too easy to kill them in peat or sphagnum. I've kept them in baskets with nothing else and watered them every day (early in the day - they don't like wet nights) and in bark watering once a week. They do well in S/H but again don't let their roots stay wet at night.
They need Lots of light.

Hey, I have that same plant in the same pot and media and all! I never took it out of its pot. just watered carefully when potting mix dries a little bit.
It grew two new pbs and both are pushing up spikes.
I do not repot unless they walk out of the pot. :lol:

I have no idea why your plant with seemingly good roots are on the decline.
You mentioned you water when the moss is still wet. I think one, you upset the plant by repotting it (when I repot oncidiums when they are not growing new shoots, they always sulk!) and two, you overwatered it apprently, you mentioned it yourself.

I actually think whatever media it originally comes in is pretty nice one. I try to imitate that by using peat or coir plus perlite. It is very moisture retentive and airy, which is perfect for oncidium.

As someone mentioned above, generally no orhids or plants unless if they are water plants, do not like to be wet all the time. Root rots occur, not just to orchids but all common houseplants, again, except for those that are supposed to be wet of course.
Oncidiums do best with constant moisture especially while growing otherwise, pb will wrinkle or growth won't reach to full&potential max, flowering won't be as great if any. This is different than being "wet" all the time.

Back to nursing your plant back to healthy state, well, I would move it to drier moss as the one it is in is too wet. pack lightly and wait.
Time will tell.

Cutting the spike at this point doesn't do anything. Leave it or cut it as you wish.

Oh, and the browing pb, I would cut it out before it spreads to other parts.

Did this start after you repot it??

Also, certain type of fungus can cause plant to dry up and die. just a possibility, not saying this is it.

wish the best for your plant!

The orchid is from NYC, so I wouldn't be surprised if our Onc's are by the same distributor.
The PB's were at a rapid decline before I even repotted it. Everyday, the wrinkles were noticeably deeper.
I had the orchid around 2 weeks in that medium when the wrinkling started and the media still was rather soaking wet even though I didn't water it since purchase. When I noticed the wrinkling was getting deep, I watered (mindless water-mode to 'save' it :blushing: ).
I moved it to the moss recently to try and keep it drier - it IS drier than the previous media but still holds lots of wetness.

I realize now it was probably not too smart.


Thanks for the wisdom. Youre the best, Orchidman! :bowing

Mature oncidium bulbs will wrinkle somewhat - this is normal. On my plants, only bulbs that are less than 1 yr old are wrinkle-free. I agree about cutting out the rotting bulb. Make sure you dust the cut with cinnamon