FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello everyone, this morning I received an Orchid I bought in the mail. The seller was kind enough to send 2 :] but they seemed really dehydrated to me. They were sent bare root wrapped in dry newspaper. I soaked them in distilled water for about 15 minutes (like I would when receiving a Venus flytrap) Then potted them in netted pots in washed hydroponic clay balls.

Can experienced growers tell me if they look okay? These are my first orchids

Front & back picture of smaller bulb and Front & back of the 2nd bulb Thanks for any help!

Whoa, those do indeed look thirsty. That's the zygoneria right, Zombie_walker?

I haven't got a whole lot of experience with orchids, but I'm guessing that the zygoneria is an 'oncidium', judging from the bulbs. I'm sure that when you pot them up and water them thoroughly that the bulbs will 'de-wrinkle'.

I think that's how people tell when it's time to water this particular orchid; the wrinkles in the bulbs. But these orchids can go longer between waterings because they store water in the bulbs.

I'm sure others with more experience will help out. Good luck with your orchid, looking forward to seeing some leaves and crazy pretty flowers !

Yeah ironjaws that's the zygoneria, the smaller one didn't have a tag but I'm guessing that's one too.

They sure do look pretty wrinkly I wonder if the newspaper they were wrapped in was wet and just dried out :l ? I'm hoping they make a recovery soon cause I was already worried about them being my first orchids and now I'm worried that they're off to a rough start too.

Thank you very much!

Hey, Z-dub. No feedback on your query, huh? How are your orchids doing? It seems like tax season is keeping everyone pretty busy lately, eh?

Hey Ironjaws, nah nobody answered but so far my orchid bulbs are still alive and they did plump up a bit like you said they would after a couple of days and watering. I don't see any new growth but also no decline in health either. It does seem like everyone is busy lately!

I did have one setback though. The first week I added a little bit of sphagnum around the roots because I felt like the hydroponic clay was too dry at times, but that caused the smaller bulb to start growing some sort of fungus. So I got rid of the sphagnum rinsed off the clay, rinsed the fungus off the roots, cut back on the watering and so far it's been okay since then. It might have just been the quality of the moss though so the next time I go to Home Depot or something I'm going to look for better moss. So learning from my mistakes still :]

It will likely take some time for you to see much activity in the growing side.
I got some about that size last fall and it took better than a month for them to finally settle in acclimate and start pushing new growth.
Watch the roots as that's where you are likely to notice it first

Cory gives great tips.

Concerning the sphagnum, I'm not sure what the weather is where you live, Zombie_walker, but for me in San Jose, Ca, I do not like it. It holds a butt load of water, which I guess is fine for some plants but definitely not good for orchids and in particular phalaenopsis.

Whatever medium or mix you use, in my experience with my own phalaenopsis orchids I always err on the dry side.

Thank you for the tips Cory! I'll keep them in mind

Thank you too Ironjaws! I have a habit of overwatering at times so I need to have some more self control with my orchid bulbs. I think I'll just water them when I water my Cephs cause I tend to be very careful not to overwater those guys, and see how they like that watering schedule.

Zombie_walker wrote:Thank you for the tips Cory! I'll keep them in mind

Thank you too Ironjaws! I have a habit of overwatering at times so I need to have some more self control with my orchid bulbs. I think I'll just water them when I water my Cephs cause I tend to be very careful not to overwater those guys, and see how they like that watering schedule.

If your orchids are planted in LFS and it is indeed an oncidium. The LFS needs to dry. I don't use LFS on anything besides oncidiums.
I wait until the top layer is slightly crusty. Watering it like a ceph is a good idea IMO. Maybe a bit longer.
I am around 6-9 days in winter months. Less in the summer.

I have a very large one here and I played with the watering quite a bit before I understood the plant.
Here I let it go a bit long


Watered it and it bounced right back to perfect the next day. That was after 10 days of neglect lol.
These can also tolerate quite a bit of light. After its settled in I would slowly acclimate it to fairly bright light as well

Do you have any slippers yet?

Sometimes once the pseudobulb gets wrinkly from dehydration, it may never plump back up, but will still be ok. I've seen worse. That's all I know.

Cory wrote:Do you have any slippers yet?

No these 2 little bulbs are the only ones I have so far :] I am still experimenting with their watering schedules as well. Thank you again Cory for the great advice I read it the day you posted but I was in class and completely forgot to answer when I got home.

Thank you xr20xr, any advice is always helpful

Update: The bulb that I had problems with, that had fungus on it's roots has grown 2 little nubby growths that I can see so far, the other one that hasn't had any problems I don't see any visible growth but I haven't checked their roots yet because I've been reluctant to disturb them. So far I'm proud that they've made it this far and I'm seeing new growth and I feel a little more confident that they'll make it ^-^

Fungus on the roots....

It was likely overwatered before you got it then. It should be ok just take longer to recover. I bought a flowering slipper from an orchid show once that looked absolutely perfect
I got it home and repotted to find root rot and only one good root.

Hope all is well with your 'chids. I'm not familiar with that breed of orchid but I would have to agree with Cory, those roots definitely looked to be over watered as opposed to under watered. The black is a tell tale sign of root rot and fungus is a tell tale sign of too much moisture mixed with lack of air circulation. Hope that helps and I hope they are growing uncontrollably by now.