Repotting damaged & root bound - help?
 

Hi,

So as I said over in the beginner forums, I got two orchids from Hawaii recently that got frozen badly in transit (NOT on my doorstep). I've finally got an OK from someone at the shop that I can perform surgery & repot (wanted OK to make sure they wouldn't need any more photos for claim).

I took out the oncidium and found it SUPER root bound. I can hardly get the medium out of it. The ett had a lot of rotten roots from the freezing (and was even still cold inside days later) so I want to get this oncidium cleaned up.

First glance image:
https://i.imgur.com/WwzDZfd.jpg

I'm slowly gently picking away at the bark. Here is what I've found so far.
https://i.imgur.com/fAdgq33.jpg

So, Question 1 - (I'm sorry as I am a newbie.) Do I cut away this pseudo bulb along with the frozen damaged bulbs/leaves?


And question 2 - as I dug further, it looks like they just threw new media in here and a keiki developed or something weird happened? (Again, I'm new).. can I separate this out so that things aren't growing at two very different heights? Hard to get a picture.. but here's a couple:

https://i.imgur.com/dJ6WlvV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oF1daK0.jpg

This has been such a messy transaction. I appreciate the help.

I don't see anything that looks concerning. This looks like a really healthy plant. I think you just need to put it in a pot with some fresh medium, and leave it alone to get settled in.

Oncidiums don't grow "keikis". Those are just the new growths. They typically occur on the front pseudobulbs, but in well established, vigorous plants, new growths can start from farther back on the plant. This is a good thing, because more new growths means more flowers.

That one bulb in the back that is brown at the base is the only irregular thing I see, but I'm not sure that's anything to worry about. If it is squishy, then you definitely should cut it off, but is it squishy? It looks firm in the picture (though how can you tell from a picture if it is firm? haha). It may just be discolored from being below the medium. If it is still firm, you should probably just leave it. If it bothers you, you could remove it, since it is leafless, but there's no real reason to remove it (unless it is squishy, which indicates rot).

I don't see anything that definitely looks like cold damage to me. I think the plant is fine, and you just need to get it potted and give it some space.

That's because I didn't put any pictures of the cold damage leaves in here. :) These photos were taken after they were all removed. The leaves got pretty beat up on the ride over. I was worried about the bulbs, but I agree with you. I don't think they are cold damaged except for the one that went a little mushy which I removed.

OKAY so then my question is, I don't remove the medium that's root bound in there.. but what do I do about it being... bilevel since you said this isn't a keiki? Do I just leave that guy out of the medium? Do I separate? The shop I got them from had put medium up pretty high into the plant there.

Here's another photo:
https://i.imgur.com/npQLqmF.jpg


And thank you so much for dealing with my newbie panic. :) The ett definitely took more damage than the oncidium. As I said, took off the more damaged leaves. Leaving some on that seem like they may have a little damage and just going to watch and see. It's hard to tell.

Yeah, it gets kind of tricky sometimes when they try to climb up out of the pot like that haha. Plants with Brassia in their background tend to be particularly bad about this.

I would remove as much of the old medium as I could, but don't worry if you can't get it all. If you want to divide it into two parts, I think there's enough pseudobulbs there to make two okay divisions, so that's an option (and even the back division will start new growths of its own), but if you'd rather keep it in one piece, just pot it as well as you can. It's okay for some of the backbulbs to be slightly below the medium, but don't bury them completely, as that could lead to rot. If the new growths are a little above the surface of the medium, that's okay. The roots will reach down into the pot as they grow.

I found your other post, and I see the cold damage now. You did a good job of getting it all cleaned up :)

---------- Post added at 05:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:48 PM ----------

And don't worry, you're free to panic all you want. We are here to help lol

---------- Post added at 05:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:49 PM ----------

I would also like to clarify, if you are going to divide the plant, make sure that the new growths have at least two, preferably three mature pseudobulbs attached to them. Definitely don't separate just the new growths from the rest of the plant, as you would a keiki.

Thanks very much. I think I'll just move it into a bigger pot for now (it was JAMMED in that 4 inch pot) and not divide it. Poor plant has been through enough! I could not get any of the medium in the middle of it out.. only the pieces on the very outer edges. Maybe it'll loosen its grip after being in a bigger space for awhile. :)

Freeze of no freeze, I am still trying to figure out why you did anything to this plant? The best way to handle freeze damaged plants is to leave them alone and keep on the dry side.

I was advised to do so because leaving damage like that can make your plant more susceptible to infections and other issues. I googled and read up extensively before I did it and the general consensus was to remove with sterile equipment and cinnamon/listerine/physan.

Some of it was also going mushy and smelled rotten too. :-/

What's done is done now. I hope I went the right route.

I tend to agree with cymb lady. I might have done a little less and let the leaves die back naturally. However, in fairness to the grower, they don't just cram those plants into 4"pots. Oncidium tribe generally grow lots of roots, sometimes massive amounts. They simply sent you a mature plant which unfortunately got frozen.

Now, Jscott gave you good advise. You can use the sink sprayer to get out more bark, or you can just put it in a larger pot. I would not divide it. From experience, dividing may set the plant back. My Sharry Baby looked much worse than that, the OB advised me to do as above. Now it's in an 8 or 10" pot and just gave me 4 gorgeous spikes.

Thanks that's good to know regarding the roots. As I said, I am newer and I've never run across a repot where I couldn't even touch most of the medium due to the roots being like that.. hence my initial thought, root bound. :)

I joined Orchid Board because most of the orchid videos I watched on YouTube were completely ridiculous and gave bad advice. Orchid Board has the best information, going back over 10 years, in a searchable format. Plus I get the best explanations of things I don't know here.