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Oncidium

I just bought an Oncidium Sharry Baby... What does that mean? Oncidium is the Genus name I am supposing, but what does Sharry Baby mean? Is it a cultivar/hybrd of some sort, or a subspecies?

Anyways... How does the care for this differ from a phal?

Also. All the flowers are dead... Is there a way to instigate a new spike, like you cut 4 notches up, or no?

Thanks alot guys, and gals!
wink.gif

Greg
 
Hi Greg

I love Oncidium's - good buy!

You got it, Sharry Baby could only be a hybrid. Botanists are generally a serious lot (yes, there are exceptions to the rule) and they don't usually give plants frivolous names like that. Sounds like someone named Sharry or someone trying to get in Sharry's good books named this plant when they bred it.

I just had a Nepenthes (a species, not a hybrid) named after my wife for pretty much the same reason, ha ha ha.

Oncidium are dead easy to grow in fact except for Dendrobium they are probably the easiest. Water, etc the same as your Phal but give it more light. I think they like the light a lot, mine do. As they have thin leaves this suggests they do too. Plants with big fleshy leaves like Phals don't, they burn easily.

I don't believe you can induce them to produce more flowers on the same spike, they're not like Phals in that respect. I find that once the spike has flowered, it dies and I have to wait (about 4 to 6 months) for it to make another. Have a look at the plant and you can see that it is actually bulbous, there are two leaves attached, at the bottom, to each bulb. I may be wrong but it seems that each bulb produces one spike and you have to wait for another bulb to develop before it flowers again from the new bulb. Maybe Merlin or someone more into orchids can confirm/ not confirm that? Just an idea I have.
Leave and see this time if you want, can't hurt.

Cheers, Troy.
 
Thanks alot Troy (fb
tounge.gif
)...

One of the bulbthingies has the tops of the leaves cut off... I have no idea why, but it does. So now its just a bulb sitting above a pretty pile of bark. Should I leave it, or would it not hurt remove it surgicaly? Hehehe... I might repot it if I find a pot I like, or think will do well for an orchid. The pot its in now seems kinda malproportioned to the plant..........

Any comments on what I just said?
Again, Thanks.
 
Someone probably trimmed the tops of the leaves off to make the plant look better. The tips of older leaves tend to get brown. The time to repot an Oncidium is when new growth just starts growing from the base of the pseudobulb. Be careful during the procedure so as to not damage the new growth and any roots that might be starting to sprout.
T
 
I don't understand completly...

Mine has three pseudobulbs.

Two of them (including then one cut just above the end of the psuedobulb) are pseudobulbs between two leaves that have split apart from eachother (I assume they used to for a pseudobulb themselves...)...

The other pseudobulb is just the bulb, with leaves coming out the top.....

There is also a piece of hard green sticking out of the bark about two cm away from the rest of the plant...
 
What it sounds like to me is:

The two with no leaves/ leaves cut down are basically finished bulbs. You won't see much more action from them but don't worry, that's just the way Oncidiums grow.

The third one with the leaves is your active one, I assume that's the one with the dying spike? Don't freak but that'll probably lose it's leaves sometime later too.

The "hard green" SOUNDS like it's a new growing shoot developing?

What do you think Tony?

Cheers, Troy.
 
Hmm... So it shoots a pseudobulb out of the ground, flips leaves open, puts up a flower spike, then some more leaves (another pair I'mguessing), the the leaves die?

so the one that has only one set of leaves (the pseudobulb hasnt split and two more havent come out) is gonna flower next?

What do I do to the finished bulb?

The green pokey thing is snipped just at the tip of it. Dumb caregivers.
tounge.gif


Thanks. This is neat.
hehehehhehee
 
Yeah the new growth forms like a fan of leaves and originates from the base of the previous mature pseudobulb. The fan of leaves will get quite large before you even see the pseudobulb swell up. As it does so, the inner 2 or 3 leaves will end up on top of the pseudobulb while the outer leaves will be enclosing the base of the pseudobulb. Usually the lower leaves only last that single season while the leaves off the top of the pseudo bulb will last several years. Eventually when they fall off the pseudobulb will continue to last several more years leafless. Flowers only develop from the current growth and if I recall correctly they will emerge from the fan of leaves as the pseudobulb is beginning to get plump. All the other pseudobulbs on the plant act as water and nutrient storage devices so that the new growth has plenty of reserves to grow big and strong rapidly.
Tony
 
How swollen is a swollen bulb? All of mine are kinda flat... ish.
The older looking ones are coregated... Am I supposed to put water down between the leaves?

Thanks.
wink.gif
 
  • #10
They will tend to be sorta oval like if you look at them from the top down. Yes the older ones will often be somewhat wrinkled and corregated as you put it. They should be fairly firm, particularly the younger ones.

When you water be sure to give the whole pot a thorough flushing then let it get almost dry again before you give it a another good drench.
 
  • #11
I flush all of my orchids when I water them. How can I tell ifit's dry? Its bark, so its hard to stick my finger in...
 
  • #12
Hi Parasuco

Congrats on your Sharry Baby.
smile.gif
I have been looking for that one for a good while and added it to my collection just a couple of months ago. Mine has finished it first bloom spike and has two more spikes coming up, one already forming new buds. You won't be able to try this now, but when yours blooms again, smell it...they are known for their fragrance as they smell a bit like chocolate although they lose their scent at night.

How often you water depends on a lot of things like temperature and humidity. If its somewhere hot (like outside), you will have to water more frequently. Indoors I water about twice a week, more if something is looking dry. But I moved most of my orchids outside this year so I have to water more often. Morning waterings are good since it gives the plants time to dry off before the cooler nites. I'd try wiggling a finger down into the bark to check it.

And as with many orchids, they only bloom off new growth. So just give it some TLC and you'll get new blooms probably in the fall.

Suzanne
 
  • #13
Ok cool thanks... It was sorta an impulse buy... My mom was going the city with a rich people garden center, where they have a regular perenials/annuals, a big water plant section (where they sell three or four kinds of sarr), and a tropical house plant/ hobby plant area type dealy... I had around $130 pay, so I asked if I could go with her... I didnt buy anything there... My mom wanted to go to a different city's version of that store... Thats where I saw a bench of orchids... Most were marked down kuz they were dying or had no flowers left... I got it fro thirty bucks, thats including the Tillandsia pruimosa...

Like I said before though... there are three three bulbs, and average leaf lenght on the plant is 47cm (sorry, couldnt find my inches ruler)... It is in a shallowish looking four inch diameter pot... Do you think I should repot? There are no flowers to shock off, so It wont hurt (I dont think)...
 
  • #14
Hey Greg, funnily enough I was at a friend's place today (he owns a public orchid garden) and he showed me a bunch of new ones that he has just purchased and Sharry Baby was one of them. He had one in flower and it was stunning, flowers almost the same size and shape as my Golden Shower but they were a brown/ purple (sherry?) colour.

He didn't have any to sell though  
confused.gif


Cheers, Troy.
 
  • #15
Like I said... I got mine at a regular garden center... Well. Its for rich snobs, but other than that, its regular...

Why not try looking around, or even see if a garden center with orchids can order you one?

If Something happens, and it becomes possible to send you some of mine (no idea how), then I could... Maybe as a trade for that bromilead, or sumthing???
tounge.gif


Yea... Hehehe...
 
  • #16
Hey Fatboy...

Did you give that Sharry Baby a sniff? The scent is light but a definite chocolately fragrance. Mine just opened a flower bud yesterday but the spike is still filling out...and a third one on the way. I like the color of the Sharry Baby because so many oncidiums are yellow. I have a baby 'Sweet Sugar' that is yellow.

Suzanne
 
  • #17
I did nto smell it. I just picked the plant with the healthiest leaves... Ithappened to be an Oncidium when i got home.....

I know. That horrible...
confused.gif
I didnt want another phal though. Just tryin to get variety...
 
  • #18
Ok. Now that I've re read that whole thread, I think I can ask a question a bit more clearly now...

First of all... I'll tell wuts going on with my plant.. Ok... Two done bulbs with leaves... One done bulb without leaves... One fan of leaves, still can't see the bulb itself yet. I'm guessing this is theone that will flower soon... The nublette stickingout of the ground thathasnt done anything... AAAANNNDDD, its new, but I found a baby growth coming from the second last bulb (the one that I cut the flower spike off of)... So I knowwhich will flower next, and what will be growing, etc...

Now that you know wut is going on in my pot... There are no flower spikes, and like Tony said I should do, there is a baby shoot, so I wanna repot. What I want to know, isshould I? Its a fairly small pot, and unless Oncidiums like small pots, I think it needs a change... What do I pot it in though??? I know that sounds dumb, but I honestly don't know where to get an orchid style pot...
confused.gif


Thanks...
 
  • #19
I think you're worrying too much there Greg.
Get yourself a good sized pot, any kind that has good dainage - personally I like clay ones for my orchids but it's up to you - and just fill it with charcoal or bark. They'll love it.

Cheers, Troy.
 
  • #20
Generally speaking there should be enough room for one or two new pseudobulbs to grow. Any more than that and the pot will be too big and the roots wont dry out fast enough and die. Oncidiums inparticular do like smaller pots with finer mix because they have thinner roots. If they are overpotted root rot becomes a great risk.

When do you repot your oncidium? When the new growth is right smack up against the side of the pot! If it is not and the potting mix looks like it is not all decomposed then leave it alone.
Tony
 
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