Repotting has not been kind to my oncidiums.....
and it shows in the pseudobulbs. I bought the Sweet Sugar twins Buttercup and Butterscotch back in late October as my first ever oncidium, along with my only dendrobium, Angel. The twins were originally one bushy oncidium plant that was in bloom with a second pseudobulb going into spike. But the nursery used a weird packing medium that looks like peat moss or some sort of soil mix and I was anxious about leaving them in the original pot.
So I did the repotting into S/H and lost the first spike to bud blast. A month later, the mold outbreak occurred and I repotted my orchids into properly sanitized medium but I did't have a container large enough for the bushy plant so I divided her into two almost equal parts, each with a newly mature pseudobulbs as well as some old ones.
Buttercup had a flower spike up until this most recent repotting so she has become very shriveled from the flowering. The shriveling has also occurred in the older, smaller pseudobulbs which has me a little worried because they have always been rather plump.Hopefully with the flower spikes gone and the pot getting great moisture, the Sweet Sugar twins will bounce back in the S/H setup.
My favorite orchid.....
by far in my entire collection, my Sharry Baby Godiva, has also undergone some serious abuse. She was in full flower when I got her earlier this month and I enjoyed her flowers so much that I was reluctant to repot her. I thought it would be alright seeing as she looked good and had lots of new growths but once again, the medium she was planted in was the weird peat/soil.
When I repotted her the second time in the S/H, I realized I had done a poor job of removing her older, dead roots and clumps of the old medium so I took my time cleaning her. At the end she lost half her root system, mostly all by the older bulbs, but I was not happy at all. I sanitized her with the hydrogen peroxide and repotted her into a bigger pot. The flower spike was on the way out anyways so I just cut and tossed it, sad as I was to do it.
She has three new growths that she came with when I bought her and I don't think they've grown much in the month she's been with me. But now that I have her in her new home, I'm hoping she'll be able to bounce back. I've heard from my youtube watching, that oncidiums tend to take to the S/H pretty well since they love the moisture. I'm praying that its true and all my oncidiums will recover from all the rough handling.