Psychopsis Kalhiri help!

[bearded orchid]

Hello, I recently procured a rather weathered Psychopsis from an orchid nursery about a month ago. It was overall in average shape but several of its leaves were damaged and clipped. I asked them about it and they said they had pruned some diseased growth off several months back and that it would be fine now. It did have one large healthy leaf and a few trimmed ones but I saw that it was beginning to produce a new PB and thought I'd go for it. Well, a few weeks later the new PB started to brown and rot so I had to trim it off I used cinnamon to seal it and realized the thing needed to be reported as it was severely overcrowded (a 2.5 in pot inside a 4 in one! ) and the medium was badly broken down. After trimming some bad roots out of a massive root ball, I repotted it in the 4 in pot with some fresh bark and all seemed well... That is until it got a killer case of sunburn when it got moved off the porch when we were cleaning and was left in the sun for a day and a half :'(

Anyways, shortly afterwards all but one of the leaves began to die and rot so I was forced to clip them off. The bud it was growing also got blasted but there appears to be a little one still emerging.

What should I do now? Should I clip the spike since the plant only has one trimmed leaf still alive? Is there anything that can be done or is the poor thing a lost cause? Any advice would be greatly appreciated

If you need pics I can get them posted tomorrow or so.

[DesertRayne]

I hate giving up so if I was in that situation I'd try and save it anyway, even though it would probably take a while and TLC.

I'm a little curious what the nursery meant by "diseased growth." (Was it like some sort of virus or mechanical damage or sunburn?)

Sunburn/mechanical damage seems like a one-time thing, so your Psychopsis could get better and do fine. Clipping the spike does sound like a good idea since it'll be adjusting from being repotted and the sunburn. If you really don't want to cut its spike though, it might be okay as long as it has a really good root system and you don't see it decline further. Maybe you might even get a keiki while you wait.

Good luck!

[Daethen]

I don't think psychopsis keiki from the spike. You may get some more p-bulbs if you are patient. I hate to give up as well, so I would give it some time and let it sulk a while. It may just surprise you and come back strong.

[bearded orchid]

Yeah, I hate giving up too! I'll keep a constant eye on it and see what it does What would you suggest about the watering schedule? Cut back more or keep up the same frequency?

[Daethen]

I guess for myself I would cut the water back a bit for a while. Onc. alliance can sulk sometimes after being repotted and it has been through a lot since then. Maybe a bit less light for a while. I would have a hard time cutting the flower spike, but it probably would be the right thing to do. I just don't know if I could do it though.

[bearded orchid]

Alright, I'll cut back on the water and light for a while and let it sulk in peace. I guess letting it chill with my Phals might bring its spirits back up. I don't think I can get myself to cut the spike; it's standing now at 3 feet in height. If I see it going downhill I'll look at cutting it, but hopefully that won't happen

[orchids4me]

After you have posted 5 time you can up load pics in the threads. A pic for this one will be helpful to for us to better help you and see what your trying to explain

[bearded orchid]

Alright, here are some pics to help with my description.

Here is what it looked like before (sorry I didn't think to shoot a closeup before)


Here is what it looks like now.



And the little bud that survived


I hope this helps clear things up a bit more. Thanks again for any input and advice. You guys are so helpful!

[Rivka]

how it is doing?

i just want t say that i have one that had possibly even a harder year than yours, starting with a bad sunburn right as we were moving across the country. it got dried out, un potted flown in luggage, left too long unpotted, blatantly ignored while i gave birth to twin and had no time and yet thru all that over the course of 6 months or more, it had 3 spikes that even though i was sure were dry and dead as a door nail i left on.

low and behold i turned around a few weeks ago and it had a flower opening! quite a bit smaller than the past ones, but wow!!! and now i am happily looking at the second spike flowering and the third bulging a tiny bud. it is really amazing what this orchid (and my whole collection) has gone thru this year, i laugh at anyone that says orchid are dainty plants!

[bearded orchid]

Hey Rivka, thanks for dredging this back up

Glad to hear your Psychopsis is making a comeback; aren't orchids the greatest!?

My kalhiri is doing alright. It hasn't really done a lot since last I posted. It ended up blasting the last two buds since I shot those images but the current one is just about ready to open!

I went ahead and repotted it with some smaller-grade medium with better drainage and changed to a shallower pot with air holes for better breathing. All-in-all I'd say he has at least stabilized. He did start to get some black rot on the little silvery patch of sunburn in the picture, but I stopped that with a good dose of cinnamon powder as a dessicant.
I'm hoping to see new growth next spring but for now, I'm just exhilarated to see it bloom once again

I recently took some pics of it for the "Ugliest Plant Contest" thread. Check them out to see how he looks http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/gen...hid-plant.html

[PaphMadMan]

I wouldn't cut the spike. It will die back if the plant can't support it, but if it survives you will get flowers from that spike for years.

Psychopsis like to be in crowded pots and hate to be repotted. It isn't unusual for them to go downhill a bit after repotting. If the medium breaks down you have to repot, of course, but never move up more than one pot size. And choose medium that either breaks down slowly or has components that never break down. The pot you have it in now is really too big and it might not send up a new spike until it fills the pot, but don't repot again. Just let it recover and grow into the pot.

[Rivka]

yeah i heard they hate stale media and hate to be repotted, so i put mine in s/h it has had a hard life but it wants to live and is doing a pretty good job of it.

[bearded orchid]

Originally Posted by PaphMadMan

I wouldn't cut the spike. It will die back if the plant can't support it, but if it survives you will get flowers from that spike for years.

Psychopsis like to be in crowded pots and hate to be repotted. It isn't unusual for them to go downhill a bit after repotting. If the medium breaks down you have to repot, of course, but never move up more than one pot size. And choose medium that either breaks down slowly or has components that never break down. The pot you have it in now is really too big and it might not send up a new spike until it fills the pot, but don't repot again. Just let it recover and grow into the pot.

I put it into a different pot from that one. It's a four inch orchid pot. It had been planted in a 2.5 in pot inside a 4 in pot with mix in between. It was severely overpotted as the root ball had grown out of the little pot and crowded the outer pot. There really wasn't any way to get any medium in a smaller pot with all the roots so I upped it.

Here's an image of the new pot. It now has smaller grade medium than the older images. The plant was repotted almost a month ago.

[jerrymeola]

I grow hundreds of Psychopsis and yours just looks average. They are generally ugly plants with fabulous flowering.

I am not sure if I own a single one that does not have cut or broken leaves. Rot will grow from the center of the leaf and these I cut it off, the same as your supplier. It does not seem to harm the plants.

The heavy rains and high humidity in Florida this summer is causing a lot of new growth rot (up to four hours a day every day and often late in the evening). It is happening to me outdoors but other growers are having the same issue indoors with more controlled watering. It can also happens after re-potting.

The leaves become mushy soft and can be lightly pulled and separated from the plant. I do not find it necessary to treat the area as the sun seems to cauterize it in a day. I never remove rotting bulbs as it does more damage and the plants seem to cure themselves easily.

I would leave the plant alone. They recover by themselves.

I have had all the leaves die on several and then new growth emerged. I tried to put a very large one in a basket and it hated it. So far nine new growths have rotted on this basket and a couple more when I moved it back to a pot. As fast as they die the plant puts up more. It has put up three new growths and a spike since I put it back in a pot.

Psychopsis do keiki off the flower stem while it is still flowering. I have one that is 5 inches now and another small plant with a 8 inch spike branching for flowers or keiki on almost every node with 9 new growths. I was going to photograph it as soon as they got larger and I could tell which were keiki and which were flowers. So far I have 2 flowers and 1 keiki . The rest are only a quarter inch.

Keiki are not common but this is my third plant to produce them.

I would not remove the flowering spike on your plant. It will not help the plant and leaving it will not hurt. But cutting those beautiful flowers will be a shame.

They really like old small pots. I have a very large one still in a 4 inch plastic put that now has 6 spikes and it is the less common alba form. They seem to handle old medium better than other orchids.