Zygopetalum orchid help

[warus]

Hi guys,

I acquired a zygopetalum pumpkin jack a month ago and was told that psuedobulbs will form on the plant after the flowers have fallen off. Is this true?

This morning, I discovered that the leaves on the flowering stalk has started to brown from the bottom. This plant has been recently repotted by me when one of the bulbs started to turn brown due to root rot. I removed it and potted it up in a drier medium. So I am not sure if these brown leaves is a process of the rot continuing to take hold or part of the process of forming the bulbs.

Thanks and I hope all that makes sense.

[ang709]

If it is dry and papery and just at the bottom of the growth, it may be normal. Can you post a picture?

[warus]

If it is dry and papery and just at the bottom of the growth, it may be normal. Can you post a picture?

Hello Angie,

Thanks for the info. unfortunately, I panicked and just went straight to repotting that night before your reply.

It was a good thing too. Whatever healthy roots it had were also rotting and the leaves in question was rotting too (black and wet). I made a mistake using the new pots I bought which only had 4 water draining holes at the bottom. I have now repotted the plant into a charcoal, fir bark and hydroton mix in a open pot and have been monitoring it like crazy. It seems happy now although I had to take out a good percentage of the roots. Hopefully, it will put out some new roots for a long road to recovery.

Thanks again.

[ang709]

I hope the rot is stopped for good and that your Zyg makes a full recovery. Keep us posted.

[123orchids]

good luck, post some pictures

[warus]

Bad news this morning. The rot continues to march on with a vengence.





I divided the original clump into 3 divisions. 1 just has a pseudobulb and the other 2 has 1 bulb and 1 stalk. This is one of them. The other looks healthy and I am hoping it stays that way.

I am guessing this is rot. Hope the zygo experts will tell me otherwise. If it is rot, what should I do with this clump? Remove the stalk and keep the bulb or throw out the entire thing??

[ang709]

I'm sorry, but, yes, that is rot, and I'm sorry to say this division looks like a definite gonner. If your other division still looks healthy, you may have removed it before the rot could creep into it. In that case, it is good that you made divisions; in doing so you may have saved your plant.

I am curious about the plastic wrapped on the bottom of the pot?

Let us know how it goes with the healthy division.

[warus]

Hi Angie,

Thanks for the reply.

I use open plastic pots for my orchids (I believe these are usually used for hydroponics). Since the micro climate for my growth area has a tendancy to get too wet and humidity here is high all year round, I need the growth medium to dry out fast after watering. Most times, I use charcoal bits that is big enough so they don't fall through the holes. However, for some of my orchids, I do use a mix of charcoal, hydroton, perlite and orchid bark and they have a tendancy to fall throught he hole due to size. So I cling wrap the pot and put holes in the wrap. Its ugly but it works for me.

[nen]

Hi Angie,

Thanks for the reply.

I use open plastic pots for my orchids (I believe these are usually used for hydroponics). Since the micro climate for my growth area has a tendancy to get too wet and humidity here is high all year round, I need the growth medium to dry out fast after watering. Most times, I use charcoal bits that is big enough so they don't fall through the holes. However, for some of my orchids, I do use a mix of charcoal, hydroton, perlite and orchid bark and they have a tendancy to fall throught he hole due to size. So I cling wrap the pot and put holes in the wrap. Its ugly but it works for me.

Hi Warus, Just my 2 cents worth..
I am not an expert at growing Zygos and have one, a hybrid, which I have had over 3 years. Within this time it has trebled in size & flowers every year.
I too kept it too moist at first & lost roots and a new growth. I learn't that it grows without problem as long as you make sure that the psudobulbs are above the medium in the pot (they are best if there is a gap, I have on occasion used styrofoam bits to create this). I also think that wrapping cling wrap round the pot didn't help matters with this one. Although I agree that they like to have moist roots, I think yours 'drowned'. I would try again but find another way than wrap to retain your medium. You could think about attaching some kind of mesh/net? Hope you get an other one of these & try again.

[ang709]

I like Nen's idea about mesh or a net. You mentioned the need for the medium to dry out, and I'm afraid the plastic wrap is slowing that down. I hope the other division is still looking OK.