Got a beautiful maturing Oncidium for just $15!
 

I couldn't believe it when I saw it... At Whole Foods market, they had a beautiful collection of non-phal orchids and at the insanely cheap price of just $14.99 (down in Princeton NJ area).

I didn't have much room in my car, and opted for just one over 3' long oncidium. In retrospect, I should have picked up a couple more and made room. ;)

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The larger of the 3 pseudo-bulbs is nearly 4" long. Really beautiful looking plant. It has over a dozen blooms going on right now. The pot is seriously too small... I will definitely have to replace it after this cycle. It's so top heavy, I had to add another wire to help keep the main spike more upright so the thing won't fall over. I better get a few stones for the base as well.

That is really beautiful! Just be careful when you re-pot it, however. For some reason, I have found that oncidiums like to be potted "snug." If you re-pot into a pot an inch or two wider, it should be O.K. This is just from my personal "learned" experience...BettyE

Thanks for your advice, Betty.

This is my second orchid lesson that I've been trying to learn (the first was learning to hold back on watering, because I was doing it too much and killing my phals). The small pot it came in certainly looks overcrowded for a plant of this size, but I guess there's a good reason why. :lol:

My main trouble is that my apartment has a rather dry atmosphere. I'm not very big on humidifiers so I've been dragging my feet on getting one. But I'm thinking it's time... if I want plants like this to have a healthy life.

Very beautiful. I saw one like that at a local nursery for about $37. Too expensive for me.So, you did get a good deal here.

:drool:

That is terrific and a bargain to boot!

You have a beautiful plant for a great deal....
do not repot yet, let the plant aclimatize to your environment maybe a couple of weeks....the first thing you should have done was soak it for 5 min in water....the bulb looks dehydrated from being neglected on the store shelf....invest on a heavy cache pot maybe 5 inches wide to fit inside the whole plastic pot you got so the plant wont wobble and fall

When I lived & grew orchids in a very dry place, I used humidity trays...They worked very well for me & my orchids. BettyE

Really nice Brassidium for a great price! I find these to be quite easy to grow.

the plant looks great and what a great price

Hi Bud, good to see you again. I was wondering about the bulbs... the Cattleya and other Oncidium in my apartment have shown wrinkling from time to time, but I wasn't sure how indicative it was of under watering. Thanks for the suggestion on getting the larger cache pot. :Tup:

Hey Vanda, I didn't realize that these are called Brassidium. Just learned something new. It's an intergeneric of the Oncidium family. :)

A steal! Beautiful and every time I see one of these I wish I had room for them, but they are far too large for my set-up.

Yes, a cross between brassia and oncidium, possibly something else too. but it looks a lot like my brassidium. I love the delicate scent of them.

Either a brassia or brassidium. Nice buy there. The wrinkling of the pbulbs has more to do with growing that long flower spike than under watering. Do not repot this until new growth emerges in a couple months. Oncidiums and their intergenerics don't like to be repotted until new growth emerges from the base of the newest pbulb. And watch the watering too. They don't like to stay wet at all. Just moist. The pbulbs will not replump. They used the stored starches and water to produce those nice flowers. My Brassia Rex 'sakata' likes to dry out before I water it again and every year it puts on one or two long spikes that last about 2 months. I'll look for a picture. They do not need to be kept "humidified". They are very hardy. But overwater them and they are gone. Sorry, couldn't find the big rex but in the pic of part of the GH you can see it under a shelf. Also a smaller one with new growth. Also a pic of another "Hell If I Knowanara". I think it's a potinara. And the first flower on one of three new spikes on one of my cyms. Maybe CymLady can tell me the name.

This is VERY important. I wish I had known it before I killed my first Beallara by repotting it at the wrong time :(

Yeah, I took a whiff of several blooms and I could detect a faint scent--very nice to know this, Vanda.

Great photos and advice, James. I gave it a good 5 minutes of soaking and then let it drain. I'll be sure to let it dry out completely before I water again, and wait until there's new growth before I repot.

I did experience a little re-plumping of the pseudo bulbs on my still smallish oncidium, after they'd started to shrivel from undesirable conditions. The wrinkles are still there, but subdued now. I don't mind them as long as there aren't any seriously deep ruts. Anyway, I truly hope I get a solid month or two out of this bloom cycle (I suspect 5 weeks at best, given how they must have been blooming for at least 2 weeks already). I'm encouraged to hear that they're hearty. I've kind of grown tired of phals and want to expand my range but with varieties that aren't too sensitive (I lost a Dickensoniana because I couldn't give it enough humidity and warmth during the cooler months).

Yes the oncidium intergenerics are very hardy and nice flowers. Cyms are a very good orchid to grow and very reliable too. Catts are my favorite though. Lots of fragrance and colors. Also I am starting to want to grow miltoniopsis again. I used to grow them all the time but for some reason since I moved about 30 miles north of my old place they don't do well at all. But I shall persevere.

James, I love the hell if I knowarara. I have always loved the Catts but I don't always have luck with them. I have one the only blooms once a year and this year it aborted it's buds. I have a hybrid ctna that has sheaths but I am waiting forever for it to bloom.

Wow that is a nice plant. Who ever the grower was must have shipped far and wide because I almost purchased the same kind of plant in CO. The yellow with tiger stripes is eye catching.

Unfortunately, just one month later and half of the flowers have fallen off.... :( They may have been fairly mature flowers as it was, so I'm guessing it's normal.

Anyway, I read somewhere that oncidiums can bloom all year round... which has me puzzled as to what should be done with pruning. I'll have to do some research to see how to deal with this, as I expect you don't do a major pruning as you would on a phal.

Here's my Whole Foods buy, but I paid $25. This is a rebloom, and this spike has already died, about 6 weeks after it opened. But another spike (seen in the photo, in the back) is just about to open. This is a Beallara Tahoma Glacier.

wow that is a nice plant =]

Hey James, I followed your advice and kept the plant watered "just enough" for the months that followed and now I have new growth.

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I pulled the plant up out of the pot to examine it underneath and many of the long thin roots are brown and rather dried up. Should I prune those off? Also, this pot looks uncomfortably small for this plant. Is it time to repot and if so, how much larger should I go?

Thanks! :)

Our Wegman's in Moorestown has a great orchid display right now! Oncs, Catts, Dens, Phals..all in bloom! I think they're $35 and $15, from a grower in upstate NY I think I read.

cythaenopsis, wait until it loses all of its flowers...then cut off the stem as close to the bottom as possible. Then, when it starts its new growth, re-pot into a slightly larger pot. It will bloom again on its new growth. Mine last about a month to five weeks. ( the flowers ) Because these particular plants have very fine roots, I re-pot mine in small LECA or fine or small fir bark, mixed with a little perlite & horicultural charcoal. Works for me...BettyE

Just for $14!? Very beatifull! Good luck with growing it! :)

This plant is in decent shape and the pot size is good. Wait until the new growth pushes new roots and when these are about 1 inch long, repot into the same pot. Here's how to do it. Let this plant dry and when it is dry, take it out and let the old media fall away. Then take a knitting needle/bamboo skewer/tweezers and carefully take out as much of the old potting media as you can without damaging the roots too much. I try to feel the roots a few at a time to see what is alive and what is history. Good roots are white to brown and firm. Old useless roots are soft, limp, and grey to dark brown. Once you have completed assessing and cleaning the roots, put the plant in the pot with the new growth toward the middle. The direction it is growing should have the most room so it can grow for as long as possible without having to be repotted or disturbed. Then fill the pot a little at a time. Hold the pot and plant in one hand, add a little potting mix, tap the side of the pot to settle the mix, add a little more, tap the side of the pot, add a .......you get the picture. This way the roots will hang down into the mix instead of being crammed into the pot with the mix laying on top of them. The new growths base should be just a tad below the top of the mix. Then water thoroughly. The only really important part of this plant are the new roots being made. The older roots are going to die off a little at a time. The new roots are going to feed this new growth while the old pbulbs furnish starches and sugars along with a little moisture to the new growth. As a pbulb matures the roots feeding it stay viable. As long as the pbulb is growing the roots stay firm and useful. Once the pbulb has reached maturity, flowered, and produced new growth, it's job is done and it grows no further. It's need for roots diminishes with time because it's roots don't feed the new growth. So while they can live on for a season they slowly die off. Their job done. That's the basic story on pbulbs and roots. Some roots stay viable for two seasons but most exist but don't do much more than absorb water.

James and Betty, thanks so much for the advice! :bowing I think I have a good idea now on how to proceed.

As for the new potting mix, I don't want to load up on a whole bunch of ingredients to mix myself, as I've got only 2 orchids in the oncidium family. Is there a good pre-mix that is reasonably priced somewhere that I could get instead? Here's an ebay listing for example: Orchid bark mix.

It has quite a bit of fine material in it so sift it through a screen first to get all of it out. Other wise it looks ok.

So, I could reuse most of the potting material (given how it was just recently purchased I imagine) and just need to get out the smaller particulate/matter?

I just came accessed this post and I have to say that your plant is very beautiful!!
I congratulate you for finding a beautiful specimen :bowing
Looking where u got it, I think that's the cheapest thing in Whole Foods I've heard of. :rofl:

I'd like to say very x1000000000 beautiful.

Yes you can use all the coarser material. Just try and get out the finer material that is less than 1/8 inch or smaller. This finer material blocks air flow through the mix which then causes stagnant conditions in the root mass and rot.

I'm finding that with the "lava debris" and other coarse material that water flows through pretty easily. Looks like this type of media requires a good soaking in a pail of water to get it saturated. I'm doing that about once a week and then in between I periodically drench the new roots with a spray bottle.

I repotted the plant with the new growth towards the middle and pointed upward more. This results in the other leaves to be tilting downward somewhat dramatically... but I figured the priority here is for the new growth.

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