Oncidium & Epicat with new growth - time to move them? - Orchid Board

andrew__ · #1 12-23-2009, 10:30 AM

I recently bought an Oncidium Sharry Baby with the intention of moving it to SH culture and recently discovered that my epicat has very few good roots and needs saving.

The Epicat has one healthy looking root, and a bunch that are sort of dark and mushy. It has maybe 8 backbulbs (shriveled but still with some substance to them), one growth from this past summer (firm, fairly healthy looking) and a new shoot that's just poking its way out of the bark. Going to clean off the dead roots and pot up into SH and place in my terrarium until I have more than 1 root, then move back into brighter light.

The Oncidium is not in bloom but has a healthy root system and new shoot coming up. I can wait on this if spring would be a better time but I don't know 100% how these grow and if now or spring would be better. I'd rather wait on this one though. How big should the shoot be (ideally) when it's re-potted?

trdyl · #2 12-23-2009, 11:16 AM

The best time to put into S/H is when it is just starting to put out new roots. Not when it is growing a new pseudobulb. Soon after the media is switched the old roots will rot off. That is why it is best to make the change when the new roots are just beginning.

andrew__ · #3 12-23-2009, 11:37 AM

Thanks - I will definitely wait on the Sharry Baby then - it's healthy as is anyway.

I was cleaning up my Epicat after I posted and found the reason it was going downhill - when it was last repotted into bark a fair bit of moss was left in the rootball - the plant was then watered as if it were in bark and when the pseudobulbs began to shrivel I guess watering was increased. Was happy to see that there were far more than just one healthy root. There's the one good one, a few that don't look great but aren't rotten and the new growth is actually putting out new roots, one a cm long, plus two barely started nubs (

). I cleaned all rotten roots and all the old moss out of the rootball, potted it into a tall SH container and have it in my terrarium under low light/high humidity/warm air where I hope it'll do well.

Ray · #4 12-23-2009, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trdyl

The best time to put into S/H is when it is just starting to put out new roots. Not when it is growing a new pseudobulb. Soon after the media is switched the old roots will rot off. That is why it is best to make the change when the new roots are just beginning.

Mostly true, but many orchids grow new roots concurrently with new pseudobulbs!