Problem with Miltassia

[sanja28]

I have a problem with my Miltassia. I bought that orchid in February, and it was doing fine, not excellently, till now. I dont have picture of blossoms but they looked like on first picture, only with white tounge.
Second picture image my orchid in September, an the last one situation a few days ago. After blooming in February new growth appeared very quickly, and another one in September. But 2 weeks ago the bigges bulb wented yellow, and leafs of Spring growth went down! I dont now what I´m doing wrong. This orchid is on southern window, daily temperatures are about 70 degrees, and by night about 62 degrees. I watered Miltassia every 10 days, humidity is very high. For example i waters my Phals and Dens every 15 days, and they are improving excellently!

[digitalgate]

quickly cut the yellow pseudo bulb that rotting will spread..Take it out the the yellow one
put into another container.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Is that yellowing bulb the oldest (check out the connection pattern, the oldest is the furthest from the new growths)? The yellowing of the old bulb may not be a serious problem if it is not rotting (wet and mushy interior), but just slightly soft. It is possible, if it is the oldest bulb, that the plant is just casting it off.

You probably should flex the pot and pull the root ball from the pot to inspect the roots, to see if you have sufficient living roots, tho there may not be a problem there from the looks of things, thin slip it back into the pot.

I would suggest that the loss of the new growth may be from less than perfect culture. Was the plant exposed to too much cold or heat? Did you mist late in the day, such that there was water standing in the leaves of the new growth that didn't have a chance to dry before night? Is the plant getting enough light, a little more than Phals, but less than Catts.

[sanja28]

No, yellow bulb is not the oldest, but that bulb provided 2 new growths. You can see at the third photo small green bulb that is furthest from the new growths. I don´t think that roots are rotten, because I belive that I have to water more often. I water every 10 days diping the pot in a water for one hour. I read one article where they said that it is better to let the water run for 30 seconds through the pot. The plant stand on souther window, one meter from radiator. Southern window should be fine, but it is winter here and days are short. It is not too warm, about 70 degrees and humidity is ok. I mist only in the morning, not every day.

[kmarch]

Frequency of watering is not as important as providing the culture the plant needs. How often an orchid should be watered is relative and depends on many different factors such as temperature, humidity, what potting medium is used, and air circulation. 2 different growers, growing the same plant could have very different watering frequencies; for example one could be watering once a week and another twice a week.

[digitalgate]

it look like the rotting disease from Brazil.

[jerrymeola]

Unfortunately I would say your roots are rotten.

Oncidium Intergenerics have very little roots when they are young and since they flower young, they are sold that way.

The bad sign is that you say "and leafs of Spring growth went down!", I assume it to mean that the little 2 inch growth on the left of your second picture turned black and came off. This is the bad sign. I seldom recover a plant from this point. Everything else with your plant was OK but new growth dying is a terrible sign.

I would remove the plant from the pot and medium and allow the roots to dry totally. I would then re-pot the dry plant in some sphag and water very little. Normally I would not water at all for a couple of months while the plant lived off the Pseudo Bulb but you do not have any pseudo bulbs left. That is why recovery is so unlikely.

I wish I could give you better hope.

Oncidium Intergenerics can die from a single watering if the roots are not taking the water out of the pot. Watering once every ten days sounds good, but like all generalities it does not apply to every situation and in yours it was too much.

Those large pseudo bulbs hold a great deal of water and Intergenerics can often be ignored for long periods. Soaking is the best way to water but a single soaking can sustain a plant for months (another generalization that does not always apply).

To give you an example, I have 8 inch pots of Dgma WinterWonderland, that have roots that are only 4 inches wide and 1 inch deep. The plants had 4-6 flower spikes on about 30 pseudo bulbs and weighed 4-5 pounds. To prevent rotting the pot is 80% Styrofoam and only enough bark to cover the roots. If the bark went to the bottom of the pot it would never dry out and a single watering could kill it.

Also all Intergenerics need good air circulation to aid in the drying.

[sanja28]

Originally Posted by jerrymeola

The bad sign is that you say "and leafs of Spring growth went down!", I assume it to mean that the little 2 inch growth on the left of your second picture turned black and came off. This is the bad sign. I seldom recover a plant from this point. Everything else with your plant was OK but new growth dying is a terrible sign.

I have 2 new growth on the right of my second picture, can you see them better on this picture?
They are green, and they looks healthly but the leafs of Spring growth falls aside. The leafs did not came off.

[digitalgate]

cut it cut it. You making me nervous.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Sanja, you have not said if the yellowing bulb is very soft/mushy, or slightly soft, or even firm. I note that there is a little green at the base. If this bulb is firm, do NOT cut it off yet. Bulbs that are being slowly cast off by the plant do not rot. They actually are being resorb (nutrients absorb) by the rest of the plant.. Waiting may give more energy to the rest of the plant. I think this plant could benefit from some systemic fungicide if you could find some in your country. Is it possible that the new growth was too close to a cold window? I listed some systemic fungicides in this post:
vanda leaf spot

[jerrymeola]

as long as you have new growth an orchid is OK.

Those new growths should continue to get larger and a pseudo bulb should begin to form when they are near full growth.

I am sorry if I frightened you more than necessary.

When Oncidium alliance rot, the new growth will come off the plant with the lightest pull. Usually all the new growth will come off in a few weeks when this happens.

You should always judge an orchid's health by whether it has new growth actively growing.

If the yellowing bulb was rotten it would get very soft very quickly. If it does not feel like rotten fruit it is OK to leave it. Just keep an eye on it.

[sanja28]

Originally Posted by Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

Sanja, you have not said if the yellowing bulb is very soft/mushy, or slightly soft, or even firm. I note that there is a little green at the base. If this bulb is firm, do NOT cut it off yet. Bulbs that are being slowly cast off by the plant do not rot. They actually are being resorb (nutrients absorb) by the rest of the plant.. Waiting may give more energy to the rest of the plant. I think this plant could benefit from some systemic fungicide if you could find some in your country. Is it possible that the new growth was too close to a cold window? I listed some systemic fungicides in this post:
vanda leaf spot

Yellow bulb is firm, in center a little bit soft when I squeeze hard, but definitely not very soft/ mushy. Plant is 15 inch from the window. Why do you think that plant needs fungicide?

[sanja28]

Originally Posted by jerrymeola

I am sorry if I frightened you more than necessary.

If the yellowing bulb was rotten it would get very soft very quickly. If it does not feel like rotten fruit it is OK to leave it. Just keep an eye on it.

It´s OK.
The bulb is yellow, but it does not feel like rotten fruit. I will leave it. And I keep you informing.

[patlee]

Thank you both for your posts...I just ordered a Miltassia and , while I am not anticipating any problems, it always helps to be prepared. The more I know, the better for the plant,right?

[rmt135]

You are right Patlee. As long we share the info about our plant problem & others can read & learn from it is great.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I think that the loss of the new growth and the yellowing bulb are probably unrelated, except maybe for the plant being a bit weak in general. The loss of a new growth is generally something to worry about, hence the suggestion of a systemic fungicide, sort of a general solution when the problem is of unknown character. However, there is one other probability. The plant may have started too many new growths for it to be able to handle them all. This doesn't happen often, but I think I have seen it occasionally where the plant itself terminates a growth. Certainly, if the remaining new growth hangs in there, that new growth will make better progress without the energy being split between two growths.

[dosrancheros]

Hello everyone my name is Bill, I am new to orchidgeeks. I am having the same problem, do you think I should remove the bad bulbs or leave them in to resorb? The bulbs are still firm, the leaves died off first. This winter I did get new leaves and with the exception of the bad bulbs the plant appears healthy. I have had this plant for 2 years. Thank you for your time and help.
Bill

[Tobi]

Hi and welcome to the forum Bill. If you would kindly go up the the User Cp at the top
left of this post and update your location, that would be helpful in us assisting you in
future posts. It looks like your older pseudobulbs are on their way out. Are they soft
or mushy? You state that you've had the plant for 2 years. I'm assuming you haven't
repotted it? I would remove the plant from its current media and examine the root
system, especially around the older pseudobulbs. From your pic, it looks like you have
3 somewhat healthy looking newer pbs. The roots should be white to grey and firm.
If the roots under the older pbs. are black or mushy, I would remove the older bulbs
with a razor blade and repot the healthy ones in a new mix. It looks like it is in a
current mix of bark, possibly charcoal and perlite. I would repot in this same mix.
Give it medium bright lighting (an east to southeast exposure is good) and monitor the
watering. Although your new pseudobulbs look slightly wrinkled, you may want to be
sure you are giving it enough water. You can use a wooden skewer to determine
when to water. Pseudobulb wrinkling can be caused by underwatering or bad roots
that are not able to take up sufficient water.

[dosrancheros]

Hi Toby, thank you for helping me, to answer your questions the plant has not been re-potted since I bought it from a grower 2 years ago. The brown bulbs are still firm to the touch. I know this may sound dumb but I have been weighing the plants on a food scale weekly to see if they need water as I have ruined two beautiful pahps from overwatering. Great idea on the skewer I will give the wooden skewer a shot. As far as re-planting, I have a bag of Black Magic orchid bark (fine) the only thing I can find on the bag is that it is 100% fir bark. Is this ok to use? When I do repot the plant should I just remove the brown bulbs? Thanks again for your time.