Colmanara wildcat rescue - Orchid Board

Silje · #1 10-16-2011, 08:26 AM

Ok. I give up. I'm obviously in desperate need of some guidance regarding how to care for my wildcats. At the moment I'm killing them in record speed. And I honestly don't want to. I like them! That's why I always tend to end up with a couple whenever I see them. But enough is enough, and if I cannot manage to rescue this last one, it is all over for me. I swear. No more onc.type of orchids in this house. I'll just stick to my maxillarias, cyms and phals.

The wildcats that I buy normally come in a tiny pot with spag moss and I keep them there until they're done flowering. Towards the end of the flowering the bulbs get wrinkled. For the first times I thought that was normal, and that the plant would recover, but then they just never do.

I tried to repot one into palm peet about a month ago. I threw that one out dead last week. It kind of just rotted away. To my defense I'll say that it was probably not a very healthy plant to begin with, and one that I should have stayed away from in the first place.

This one on the other hand, looked really happy for some time:

What I've done so far....

I took it out of it tiny, tiny pot with soggy sphag and put in a pot with only bark. I'm not sure sphag and me are meant to be together, since I'm fond of watering, so I decided to go for something that drains and dries up quickly, since the previous rotting experience might be an indication of over-watering?

Here is a close-up from today:

As you can see the older bulbs are pretty wrinkled and sad looking, but on a positive note, it is shooting! Please say that is a good sign...?

The roots are looking brownish whitish, and some of them are not looking very good at all. You know how they sometimes turn into thin strings, but with some alive tips? (Sometimes the phal's roots can look the same, but I'm getting better at ensuring healthy phal roots).

Still, I've not cut them off yet, and I thought I'd just wait until I hear what you say and until I see what happens when the poor, soggy thing dries up a bit.

Do you think this plant can become a purring, happy cat again?

What should I do to keep it alive from here on?

Fernando · #2 10-16-2011, 10:04 AM

Hi,
wrinkled bulbs are no sad bulbs.
All my oncidium and related plants which have already flowered or are in bloom are severely shrivelling. That is normal. After flowering they usually rest - at least in my growing conditions. That means they are not watered at all. I mist once or twice a day - they stay outside - and nothing more. They get lots of light/sun. (I have no Miltonias or Miltoniopsis, of course!) When the new shoot is growing, I watch carefully that no water, no rain stays in the little leaves. Once a week I give a bit of water - A BIT! Only after the new growth is big - say 15cm - I begin to water regularly, watching closely, because the roots that grow very late do not like a wet substrate. This plants get most of the water and fertilizer when the bulbs begins to form - until the flower spike shows.
I've lost some oncidiums in the past; now that I have them of the dry side and give them plenty of light and air movement like Cattleya they grow and flower reliably.

Wrinkled bulbs are no sad bulbs - you just can rehydrate bulb that are wrinkled because of draught! They will fill up overnight! But wrinkled DORMANT bulbs want to stay so!

Fer

Silje · #3 10-16-2011, 11:59 AM

Thanks for encouraging reply, Fer.

*Relieved exhale*

I'll just give it some rest with a tiny bit of watering and some misting.

The new shoot is only live 5-8 cm at the moment, so it still got some time to go.

The humidity is just way too low here in Namibia. At the moment it's around 10%. So I've got few problems with water remaining in the crowns of the phals and on the small leaves for long. It evaporates away very quickly. Until the rainy season begins, at least.

Is the bark ok as a growth medium?

When you say say lots of sun/light. Do you mean really direct sunlight, or just lots of light?

Fernando · #4 10-16-2011, 07:05 PM

Hi,
its outside, beneath the leaves of a little palm tree and a big Anguloa. There is sun from sunrise till 14:00 - but the leaves of my colmanara are in partial shade/sun. To rise the humidity the plants are places on a clay upside down pot that is in a tray with water. So the clay pod is continuously wet and chills and humidifies the surrounding air. If I've the time tomorrow, I'll make a photograph - thats easier!