Friday, December 25, 2009

Orchid report

This is the Oncidium that I repotted in the fall, thinking I was about to kill it either from bad timing or neglect. After initially potting in sphagnum, I read that sphagnum leads to rot, so I repotted it again in bark-based medium. Then left it to grow in an East exposure window. The newest pseudobulb is now the biggest, the new leaves are the greenest, and the start of a flower spike has begun to peek out at the first leaf. Cool or what! It's now in my home office, south window. With Northwest winters, even the southern exposure shouldn't be too much in Dec/Jan.

Backbulb start, taken from above Oncidium. Started in sphagnum, then potted into bark 2 weeks ago. Appears to be growing nicely. I think that sphagnum is OK for backbulb starts, since they need more moisture and there is thought to be antifungal/antibacterial property to sphagnum. Even if it takes a year or two to bloom, it is very cool to have started it myself!


One of the new oncidiums developed a pseudobulb infection, so is in quarantine. The good news is that I had decided I didn't like that one anyway/

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