Rotten Pseudobulbs in S/H

[orchidjunky]

So I noticed one of my odontoglossum intergenetics had two rotten pseudobulbs... all mushy and brown... (I believe they were the oldest ones since they were in the middle and all shriveled before they rotted). The plant has been in S/H for about 5 months now.. is it safe to say... that I should remove the plant from the media, cut off those dead bulbs cinnammonize the cuts, and then repot back into same media again? Will this disturb the plant at all... there is new growth coming out of one of the bulbs nearest one of the rotten ones.

[Ray]

These may not be the best techniques, but I take two approaches: just twist 'em off, or stick a sharp, sterile knife down into the pot, severing the rhizome, then pull them out.

Either way, you don't really disturb the plant, and I have not seen the rot progress, as it's a decomposition of dead tissue, not the infection of living tissue.

[orchidjunky]

I opted to do what i mentioned in my previous post.. unpot, clip off, cinnamonize and repot...

Just curious though... is ANY unpotting libel to make the plant suffer or is it strictly unpotting and repotting in DIFFERENT media that roots are not tailored too?

I've seen my pants struggle a bit when moving from bark to hydroton or from bark to moss or moss to bark etc.. how bout in the same media??

[Ray]

Same-to-same is better, but it's still something of a stress, I would imagine.

On the other hand, if you're just moving the plant up to a bigger pot, you don't have to disturb the root mass, so it's essentially no stress at all.

[cirillonb]

thanks for this thread. I just notice the same in an Oncidium sharry baby and was wonder how to handle it. I think I will try the blind surgery suggested by Ray.
Nick