Oncidium Update/growth patterns

[journorchid]

Here's an update (more leeching off your knowledge) on the Onc. y'all advised me on in an earlier thread (called "Cambria/Beallara/etc."). There are photos of the plant posted in that thread.

So I was panicked about brown leaf ends in the earlier thread, but that hasn't spread so I'm feeling OK about it. I lost about half of the buds, but the rest bloomed beautifully, and I'm feeling optimistic -- not at all like when Jerry advised to enjoy it while it lasts because it won't be around for long.

My question is about post-spike and growth patterns of this intergeneric. There's one fading bloom left on the spike, so I'll be cutting it off in the next few days. Shortly after getting the plant, I repotted it from sphag to a mixture of sphag and coarse bark (that Lowe's phal junk), which I now realize is in appropriate for a thin-rooted plant like this. Also, the plant's structure: One tiny (old growth) pseudobulb, one small (old) unproductive one, one large one that has been shrinking by the day as it struggles to support the spike in my low-humidity environment, and then the newest -- a narrower bundle of leaves that looks very healthy and happy but is not really growing at any appreciable rate.

So I gather the idea is that this new stalk will eventuall spread and become the next pseudo-bulb? Let me know if that's the reasonable expectation.

Also, after I prune the spike, should I repot to a more appropriate medium, or should I just let the plant rest in light of its many recent stresses. And should I adjust anything else about its situation -- light, temp, water, fertilizer?

I'm sorry to be leaning on everyone for information so much, but I really love this plant and would love to see it thrive despite early pessimism. Meanwhile, I'll tend to my mysteriously semi-hydro seedlings. (If anyone has advice on how to water baby plants in clay pellets, I'm all ears.)

Thanks, everyone, as always. I am in your debt.

Respectfully submitted,

Dan

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Use a sterilized tool to cut the old spike, but don't sterilize with alcohol.

Don't let the plant dry out completely before watering, but close. Use the skewer method to tell when. Skewer use for watering of orchids

[Ellen]

A wrinkled pseudobulb could be due to low humidity, or it could be due to a poor root system due to inapporpriate potting. The bundle of leaves sounds like a new pseudobulb. If your oncidium is growing a new pseudobulb, it's a good time to repot and find out if the roots are OK. I find that oncidiums do well in fine bark. Just make sure you use the smallest pot that all the roots will fit in, and that you remove as much of the old sphag as you can before putting in the new medium.

[bogdan_orchidboy]

Originally Posted by Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

Use a sterilized tool to cut the old spike, but don't sterilize with alcohol.

Hello Cynthia,
Why one shouldn't sterilize tools with alcohol?
Thank you

[jerrymeola]

I am glad to hear that I was wrong.

[bogdan_orchidboy]

Hello Cynthia,
Why one shouldn't sterilize tools with alcohol?
Thank you

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I am sorry to be a little slow responding. I have a lot on my plate right now, getting ready to head off to Calif. for the Costa Mesa Show, planning to rearrange the house related to that trip, and spending a lot of time on ebay over a microscope purchase to look for viral inclusion bodies, so the Forum has been coming-in in fourth place.

Alcohol does not kill orchid virus, but preserves its infectiousness. I understand that a higher concentration version of alcohol will kill virus, but it is not the stuff you commomly get a the drug store, so that if I were to specify a certain form of alcohol, I am sure it would be over looked which form it was that works, and half the people would be using the wrong stuff. Use heat, 10% bleach soak, or a soak in a saturated solution of trisodium phophate, as I do, but be careful not to get the environmentally friendly TSP substitute. Get the phosphate IN, not OUT.

[Aniko]

Orchidboy, I think the Romanian stuff (alcohol medicinal) will do the job. At your location in drug stores you can find the same strong alcohol as the commonly used one in medical practice.I know that it's the most handy disinfectant there.
In USA the standards are different.
To be sure, please, check the label for concentration (?%)

I find that my oncidium needs lots of water. Here in NJ zone 6 during the winter I water at least twice a week and in the summer outside three or more times a week. The leaves used to crinkle on me until I increased the watering. The crinkled leaves didn't straighten out, but the new leaves were okay. Mine is in fine bark.

[bogdan_orchidboy]

The concentration is 70%. Is it good?

[Aniko]

[quote=orchid126;10012]I find that my oncidium needs lots of water. quote]
I agree Orchid126, I almost killed my Miltassias waiting to much for bark to dry. Now they are fine, I give them plenty of water and I'm able to "feel" when the time is right for watering...comes with experience.
I have an Oncidium in sphagnum moss - I know some people will disagree - but is really happy in it.
(Maybe our dryer climate makes sph.moss so good as medium?...)
Aniko.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Originally Posted by bogdan_orchidboy

The concentration is 70%. Is it good?

No, not 70%. Maybe 91%? You might want to read this thread: Final word on NOT using alcohol on tools

[Aniko]

Wow, a really surprising information! Thank you Cynthia.

[bogdan_orchidboy]

Thank you!

I will dip the instruments in alcohol and then flame them!

[Townsville]

I guess I am being simplistic here - but I have heard that cinnamon on the cut surface does the trick. Is this right?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

No, not for virus. Cinnamon is for fungi and bacteria, and I am not so sure about the bacteria.