Oncidium Parquet ‘Uptown Girl’ pleating and doing badly overall

[greyblackfish]

Howdy howdy, I got this oncidium here that I got last year. It started out great but always seems to grow very slowly.

I started out growing it in mainly sphagnum with a bit of bark in the medium and a slotted pot which I hate now and will not use anymore. The leaves are growing very slowly and a pseudo bulb is not forming. I repotted into a bigger pot hoping it might help with the pot being dry so much.

Now the older leaves have yellowed and dropped (is that seasonal?) and the new leaves are growing smaller. So far it had been under pretty bright light. Now it’s in front of a window and gets medium levels of sunlight.

Please help!!!

Btw I have an oncidium gold dust grown under the same care that is growing wonderfully and even flowered this month while still young. Please see the second image. I’m proud of it

[estación seca]

Especially when tiny, Oncidiums need to stay moist. Slotted pots make no sense for them. Tiny ones don't do well in high light. ​I can't keep small ones alive in bark. I have success with tightly packed sphagnum moss. I also have success with semihydroponics, but only if I water almost daily until the roots reach the always moist zone.

[DeaC]

This group for me grows in straight s/m or mixed with small bark. Bright light, intermediate temp. and freq. water give me happy plants. You don't want wrinkled leaves or pbs.

[greyblackfish]

Okay so brighter light with more water retaining medium. I was worried that I was maybe overwatering them the last week. I don’t have any moss on me at the moment but I’ll get ahold of some eventually.

[estación seca]

DeaC lives in NJ. I live in Phoenix. You live in South Texas. Your and my bright light is too bright for tiny Oncidiums like this. Bright shade is plenty; any sun, even through a window, might cook it. Under lights it could be near the edge.

In medium bark like that you could water an Oncidium mericlone this size every day.

[greyblackfish]

Good thing you mentioned that, ES. I almost took this one outside. The window doesn’t get direct light so it should be okay. Im under the impression that oncidiums need the light level somewhere under that for a cattleya and above the needs of a phal. Let me know if I’m wrong. I’ll be closely monitoring the progress.

[estación seca]

You're correct about their light requirements. There is a much bigger risk of sunburn in the south. Mine flower in my sunroom with almost no direct sun, ever. The only time they might get sun is in the early morning, and not all of them do.

If I lived farther north I would give more light. I've grown cactus in St Louis. It's a lot different than growing in Phoenix.

[greyblackfish]

I’ve never really thought that the brightness of light will vary depending on how far south the location is. I also have some succulents in partial shade that grow pretty well. My dendrobiums were sitting in some direct sunlight and got some leaves got blasted. Still trying to figure things out with the new area since we’ve moved places. But it’s still south Texas.

[estación seca]

Brightness of light varies dramatically with latitude.

I was in Frankfurt (50 degrees North) once at midsummer. At the botanical garden they had multiple high intensity sodium lights focused through the greenhouse glass onto some of their Ariocarpus and Ferocactus cacti. The lights were inches from the glass on the outside and the plants were inches from the glass on the inside. The curators told me without this the plants would stretch and etiolate. In the lower desert in Arizona these species don't etiolate even with only a half day's sun.

This is one of the reasons I'm in awe of early European and English orchid growers from the 1800s. They were able to grow and flower high-light orchids under what I consider low light conditions, without artificial lighting.