Take off bad bulb?

[snowflake311]

My Howard's dream spent the summer outside and I messed up and I think I got too much water on the bulb right when the sun was brightest and hot. I know this was caused my me the roots are good and you can see the new growth looks good.

So what do I do? Leave the gross bulb or take it off.

[Leafmite]

Yes, remove it immediately and then dab the bulb next to it with some Isopropyl alcohol.

[snowflake311]

Ok I did remove it. I think it will be ok I repotted it too and cleaned up the roots. Some of the roots were getting smushy but most were good.

[RosieC]

Yeah, I always remove any that go like that. I've not had a problem with anything spreading but I do usually dab the cut with cinnamon.

[snowflake311]

Update!

The new bulb that was growing off the yuk one was doing well until I took the yuk bulb off. I think it shocked the plants. It's not turing down or anything it just is wrinkled now and it never was before. I think I set this plant back a year or so. I am not getting flowers from this plant this season.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Look on the bright side. If you had not removed the rotten pseudobulb, you would have discarded a whole rotten plant by now. You did a good thing removing it.

[Leafmite]

Sometimes you need to harm the plant to save it. It is unfortunate but, as Orchid Whisperer has said, the entire orchid would have been lost had you not removed it.

[rbarata]

I have a different view of things...as long as the adequate conditions are met, any thing like this one develops into a complete plant loss.
I can be wrong but I never take those things out of my plants, bulbs, leaves, etc...they will be used later to enrich the medium, like it happens in nature.
The problem is that we provide artificial conditions to our plants...we give them the right temp, the right humidity, fertilizers, we even change the soil on which they are growing...nothing like this happens in real nature.
Considering this, and because you have too much humidity in your plant, maybe you've done good by removing it.

[snowflake311]

Originally Posted by rbarata

I have a different view of things...as long as the adequate conditions are met, any thing like this one develops into a complete plant loss.
I can be wrong but I never take those things out of my plants, bulbs, leaves, etc...they will be used later to enrich the medium, like it happens in nature.
The problem is that we provide artificial conditions to our plants...we give them the right temp, the right humidity, fertilizers, we even change the soil on which they are growing...nothing like this happens in real nature.
Considering this, and because you have too much humidity in your plant, maybe you've done good by removing it.

I have to say I am with you on this one. I know the harm done to the original bulb was my wrong doing not a Virus or something like that. Next time I will leave it along because I am with you on that nature has a way. After keeping orchids for a while now I see how hardy they really are. It just takes them a long time and lots of patience to recover from things but they do if it is not sick.

Thanks guys. I will just keep my fingers crossed and keep nursing it.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Rbarata and snowflake -

Trust me - based on 30+ years growing orchids, the bulb went brown due to a disease called bacterial brown rot. Removing the diseased pseudobulb was the only way to save the plant. Leaving it in place would have infected the whole plant.