Ok...so why the heck do Oncids tuck their spikes?

Today, I found three more oncid spikes crinckled up and held into the leaves....I've been plucking and freeing for hte last several weeks.....Why do these little cotton pickers do this? Sometimes they don't, but I was wondering if anyone has any better idea if it is a culture thing or not...or if they are just too danged shy.:check:

thanks...the cardboard brained goose....

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I like my men the same way I like my coffee, strong, dark and rich...

Hmmmm i,ve had this happen a number of times with Miltoniopsis hybrids !
I,d like to know if there is a reason as well.

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Who the smeg is Dwayne Dibbley ?

The Milt I posted a pic of yesterday did that this year. It was go tight and crinkled and twisted I thought it was hopeless. Last year I tried to free one and broke it. This year I just left it alone and it came out all by itself.

My Odm did the same thing this winter. I think they're spastic when the spikes are young. Sticky too.

Keep a sharp eye! FREEDOM!!!!!!

Julie

Hi Lisa,

This has happened to me with several Oncidium alliance plants. I was told it was caused by too low humidity causing the developing spikes to "stick" to the leaves. In other words, essentially related to accordioning/pleating of the leaves. It made some sense because some of the worst affected spikes were on plants with pleated leaves. (Although my Oncidium Twinkle 'Red Fantasy' didn't have pleated leaves, but *did* have horrendous problems of "tucked" spikes--it put up 5 spikes at once which should have been awesome, but 4 of them had problems and I broke one off trying to free it--grrr!)

Cheers,

Rob

Exactly what Rob said. One can try to stop the pleating and stuck spikes by squirting a bit of water on the developing leaf or where the spike, is if you find it in time, every morning.

Hm.. The interesting thing here is that said plants HAVE no acordion pleated leaves....the spikes just got themselves stuck in leaf axil which had the two outside parts (leaf edges) tight...as if to form a tube.

In the past, if I haven't noticed and haven't freed them, then they abort, or just croak. I will say that when I catch it early and release them, they don't have as much of a tendency to be injured in the release, and they do straighten up.

I don't think the same plants do it every year, as sometimes I have to release and sometimes they come out normally....

Right now I am enjoying Kenneth what...Bevins? "The Weed". What great color!

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I like my men the same way I like my coffee, strong, dark and rich...

I'm kind of curious to know if this happens with species, or only hybrids. Just wondering if hybridizing on some also curls the leaf axils to such a degree that developing spikes get stuck inside them.

As far as culture goes though, the problem may also have to do with uneveness in watering while the spike is developing in there--not enough dryness to cause new growth to accordion, but enough to pinch a leaf axle tighter than it would be otherwise.

Just thinking out loud here--this happens out here every once in a while too; very frustrating if I don't notice it in time since I've also broken my fair share trying to free them...

(Oh yeah... LOL! It's "Bivin," Kenneth's last name--at least, on the official registrar's list....)

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Louis J. Aszod

Yeah, that's exactly what happened with my Onc. Twinkle 'Red Fantasy'--no leaf pleating, but horrendous problems with the spikes getting caught in a "tube" of the leaves. All the other plants with spikes like this, though, did have leaf pleating as well. I assumed (maybe incorrectly) the stuck spikes had the same cause.

That's encouraging as far as my 'Red Fantasy' goes, but makes me worry about some of the others! LOL I was told that 'Red Fantasy' was more prone to this than Onc. Twinkle 'Fragrance Fantasy', despite them being the same grex. So far (fingers crossed--it's only bloomed twice) my 'Fragrance Fantasy' has never had this problem. (And mine are side-by-side in the same size pot & same media.)

I am *reasonably* sure it's Kenneth Bivins, but I've seen it listed by various people with both of these spellings, and others (i.e. some lack the "s" on the end). Who knows for sure? As to the color of the flowers, it looks really awesome in its pictures, but mine isn't terribly vigorous. It's certainly never bloomed. I'm jealous!

Cheers,

Rob

I think it's worse in hybrids, but won't swear to it. The only species Oncidium I have bloomed so far is ornithorhyncum. One of the spikes sort of got caught, but seemed to free itself. You could see a slight kink in the stem.

I suspect it's probably a combination of both uneven watering AND low humidity. I'm more inclined to suspect the latter in my situation because I'm reasonably good at not letting them get too dry between waterings and I know my humidity is too low.

I'm a klutz so it's sort of a comfort to hear I'm not alone in breaking spikes. GAWD, that's devastating when I do!

And thanks for the Bivin info. I will commit that to memory! I'm happy to see that *is* the way I spelt in my record book! BTW, I guess you're aware that it's no longer in Odontobrassia, but now in Brassidium? They reclassified its Odontoglossum ancestor as an Oncidium. This one is almost as bad as taking Wildcat out of Colmanara and putting it in Odontocidium!

Cheers,

Rob