plantlovr Z5 Newbie

[plantlovr]

Hello everyone. I am brand new to this forum. I have never posted here before but enjoy reading everything I can about orchids. I have a question about an Iwanagaara Apple Blossom that I have. It is in a 2-1/2 inch pot. I hope somebody can answer the question. This is a fairly small plant but has two big pseudobulbs which are about 3" tall and very fat and about 5 smaller ones. The two big bulbs have sheaths in them. About 2 weeks ago the big bulbs started splitting on each side of the two bulbs. The splits keep getting longer and wider. I keep it under a CFL bulb equal to about 60 watt regular bulb. Does anybody know what is causing this problem on the two big bulbs. Am I watering it too much or do they usually just do this? Thanks for all the help I can get.

[Sharyn]

Welcome to the forum. I don't grow that type of orchid but there are quite a few on the forum that have experience with the Iwanagara and I'm sure will offer their help soon. You'll get plenty of good advice here and we LOVE pictures!

[BillC]

Hi plantlovr, you are very welcome to the forum. You will get to know some very nice folks who have lots of wisdom to impart. It would be a big help if you could post a pic. of the plant and give your location so that the forum can assess your growing conditions.

Bill

[kmarch]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Before we get to the splitting pseudobulbs, the name of your plant, Iwanagaara Apple Blossom should be all capitalized just like a proper name. With orchids, all the words in a hybrid name (also called a grex) are capitalized.

Now the splitting: I have seen this in Apple Blossoms and have had it happen to me wiht other Cattleya Alliance plants. I believe ti comes from vigorous growth (which is good) and is nothign to be worried about.

[Tess1]

Hello plantlvr, welcome!

[plantlovr]

Thank you everyone for your welcomes and information on this bulb splitting problem. Thanks kmarch for the spelling correction, I will try to remember that. I am a new student so it may take some time to learn things.

BILL - I live in Zone 5 outside of Chicago, IL. I grow most of my plants by my windows. I have a big southern exposure window in my kitchen over my sink and then I have 4 big windows with a southern exposure in my dining room. I also have a CFL bulb that I put a couple small plants under (away from the windows) when we have some cloudy days. I mostly have Oncidiums and a couple of Colmanara Wildcats but have started branching out to different types of orchids to see if I can grow them. I don't'know how to post pictures on here yet but I am working on learning how. I am still learning my way around this website.