Flower bud on dendrobium victoria-reginae?

Something grows at the tip of the cane

     A couple days ago, I noticed something budding off the top of my dendrobium victoria-reginae cane.  According to the kind folks at the OrchidBoard it can only be a flower bud or keiki.  I'm told that since keikis rarely form so high up along a cane, it's almost definitely a flower bud.  Although this is the right season to see den victoria-reginae bud (spring flowering), why would this orchid prepare to flower when in such an obvious state of distress?  

     As the picture clearly indicates. the den has continued dropping leaves, with only 2 green leaves remaining.  The roots I wrote about in this post have continued growing, and the new cane bud seems unchanged.  In an attempt to get more even moisture available to the new roots, I repotted the den into loosely-packed fresh sphagnum moss.  The moss now comes in contact with the new roots, and the velamen of the longer root now looks green, suggesting that perhaps more moisture is getting through.

Paphiopedilum NOID growing well

     While watering my orchids yesterday I decided to reposition my paph noid in its pot.  The tall new growth looked unstable and I wanted to position the paph a little deeper in the media.  The repotting process showed me that the roots are doing well, with no rot or root loss since Fall.  


     Also, even when the media looked overly dry on the surface, the media at the bottom of the pot was still damp (without being soggy).  I took this as a good sign, overall, as well as an indicator that I could afford to scale back on the watering without dehydrating my plant.

Oncidium NOID: the rescue orchid recovers

new growths on the left and right sides of the plant

     My oncidium rescue has been slowly growing for the past few months, with two new growths on opposite sides of the plant.  The one on the left picture is clearly visible, while the one on the right is mostly hidden within the folds of a larger leaf.  Since I was in a repotting frame of mind after dealing with my den victoria-reginae's troubles, I decided to pop the incidium out of its pot to take a look at the root situation.

picture on right shows the very first pseudobulb: small and withered now

     As you can see in the picture above, this orchid does not have much roots.  Most of the rootlike stubble that you see is actually where I had trimmed back the dead roots months ago soon when I first bought the orchid.  The only living roots are the 5 longish roots on the very left of the picture.  These have been growing out from the newest big growth.  I noticed that with oncidiums, roots seem to only grow from new parts of the plant.  The old pseudobulbs seem to be entirely inactive.

     Bringing the new roots into closeup, you can see 3 new root tips sprouting out.  Although none of these roots are green, it is not atypical for roots growing without light.  The new root tips make irrefutable proof that these roots are alive.

     Meanwhile, further up on the same growth, 3 new roots are showing through.  Since these roots sprouted above the level of the potting media, they are green colored.

oncidium in new pot, now closer to the lights

     I had last repotted this oncidium in the fall.  Although such frequent repotting is not ideal for orchids, I had several reasons to repot at this time anyway.  

     First, the media I had used last time was not the best for oncidium roots.  I had used the typical coarse orchid mix that phals are often potted in.  However, the rule of thumb is: the thinner the roots, the finer the media.  Oncidium roots are much thinner than those of phalaenopsis.  This time I used some "paph and phrag orchid mix" from repotme.com, which is better suited for thin orchid roots.  Perhaps for future repottings I will purchase media specifically formulated for incidiums, but for now I saved money by using what I had at hand.

     

an ideal orchid pot would have lots of drainage holes

     Second, I wanted to switch the orchid to a better pot.  The previous container had only one drainage hole in the bottom, while the new one has 8.  Better drainage will help the media dry out faster and prevent root rot.


     Also, last time I had managed to pot the orchid at a crooked angle.  Repotting allowed me to correct that. And finally, checking on the state of the roots lets me know if I am properly caring for the orchid and catch potential problems early.  Meanwhile, since the orchid has so few roots, repotting is less likely to disrupt the orchids health.  Unlike with overgrown orchids, this oncidium comes out of its pot easily, without breaking off delicate root tips.

Oncidium NOID: a set-back

poor root health

     While watering my orchids the other day, I accidentally jostled my old oncidium NOID, and the plant fell completely out of its pot.  This exposed the rather pitiful current state of its roots, which is quite worse than what I had hoped.  Aside from the one longish root at the upper left of the picture, the plant's only living roots are the new growing tips.  Although the oncidium has been sprouting roots continuously for the last 2 months, they haven't been surviving.  I trimmed back a few rotten dead roots (long root on bottom right).

     The lack of roots and the ease with which the orchid tipped out of its pot both indicate that I had originally placed it in way too large of a pot.  To correct the situation, I searched for the shallowest pot I owned that would still be wide enough at the top to fit the oncidium's pseudobulbs.  The smaller new pot allows the plant to be more stable, and the smaller volume of media will be able to dry out faster.  Both of these changes should help improve the orchid's root health

comparison: oncidium in new, much smaller pot

     Since the pseudobulbs still have much more thickness than the ones on the oncidium 'the rescue' NOID I am not at this point worried about losing this orchid.  However I am disappointed that my 'NOID isn't farther along in its recovery.  I really hope the smaller pot helps, but the timeline before I can hope to see my favorite old orchid bloom again seems even longer now.


EDIT 3/29: Identified as Wilsonara Pacific Perspective!

Oncidium NOID: the faded glory

     This oncidium NOID is the only other orchid to have survived the move with me.  I picked up the plant 2 years ago at a farmer's market with a 3 foot tall spike resplendent in burgundy blooms.  A plant so large was a sure bet to rebloom for me year after year, I thought.  If I knew then what I know now, I would have seen the signs of trouble.  Within two weeks, it dropped most of its flowers, and has sulked since.

wrinkled pseudobulbs are a sign of trouble

     Two years later, after some reading on proper oncidium care, I finally got suspicious about the state of the plant.  The pseudobulbs on this plant are all strongly wrinkled, which is a sign of dehydration.  While it is natural for old pseudobulbs to wrinkle slightly over time, the newest growth (top right of picture) should be plump.  The wrinkled state of these pbulbs are a clear sign of root trouble.  Another red flag is that the newest pseudobulb is only half the size of the two older ones.  If an orchid is healthy and growing, then new growths should never be smaller.  In the very top picture of this post, you can also see wrinkling on the two leaves at the front.  The wrinkling indicates that the orchid was not getting enough water at the time when those leaves were forming.


     When I finally got around to repotting the plant, the plant fell out of its oversized 8-inch pot... with the roots contained within the shape of a smaller 5" diameter mass.  The rest of the outside pot was filled with badly decayed wood shavings, and contained no roots at all.  Meanwhile in the heart of the root mass I found a smaller 2.5" plastic pot buried around the oldest growth.  This plant has not been properly repotted since it's very first deflasking!


    Lesson learned: always repot an orchid when you first get it.  You never know the true health of a plant until you see the state of its roots, and even reputable seeming vendors can sell orchids which are in bad need of repotting.


After I finished cutting away the old plastic from the root mass, the plant was left with very few healthy roots.  Within weeks of the repotting however, the young growths sprouted a veritable pincushion of new root tips.

A few weeks after re-potting: you can almost hear its sigh of relief

The roots today

Even a couple months after the initial repotting, the plant continues putting out roots.  Some of the initial roots have failed, while others seem to have established themselves (the white roots on the left).  Meanwhile, the leaves on the new growth have since doubled in size. 

I particularly like the purple tinge on the new growths

 I am a little concerned by the black spots on the top of the new leaves though.  I'm not sure what caused this damage, but at least it hasn't progressed since first appearing.

water damage or lampburn?

The plant still has a ways to go before it fully recovers.  Oncidiums bloom from new pseudobulbs, and since the newest pbulb has already aborted an attempt at blooming, I will likely have to wait for a new pseudobulb to grow before I can hope for a flower spike. I guess I will have to be patient before I can hope to see those gorgeous blooms again.

EDIT 3/29: Identified as Wilsonara Pacific Perspective!