Brassia roots...are these good or bad?

[Cinderella]

The following are pictures of my unpotted Brassia, which I purchased a year ago. I think it was potted in volcanic cinders ?? and I should have repotted it last year!

I have a hard time telling with oncidiums if the roots are viable or not. These roots are light brown and did not green up when I soaked it for 15 minutes. In addition, the bulb pictured has some brown on it. Does this need to come off?

Help, thanks!

[LJA]

Debbie, those roots look perfectly good to me, and it's a strong root mass. If they stayed firm after you soaked them, they're healthy. A lot of roots won't green up after watering, especially if they're relatively young and new, so don't use that as a gauge to decide if they're healthy or not.

The brown spots on the pseudobulb are nothing to worry about. It looks like old, minor damage that's long since healed. That kind of bulb spotting happens often, especially as a growth ages.

It looks like a nice plant!

[Cinderella]

Louis, I will go ahead and repot. One of the reasons I asked is that the leaves are not all standing up; some are kind of bent over.

[LJA]

On your botom pic, in the upper left, it looks like one of the leaves is creased laterally. Is that a new growth that came up after you bought the plant? Bent-over leaves can be caused by several things: underwatering, overwatering, heat stress, or not enough light. In each case, not enough water is getting to the leaves, and they react by going floppy.

Given the season, I seriously doubt it's heat stress (unless you're keeping the plant on a mantle above a fireplace or something), and by the looks of the roots, it's not overwatering--the roots seem healthy, not rotten and mushy. From what I can see, the plant color looks normal, so the light seems to be adequate. But, that accordion pleating in the leaf is a sign that it developed without enough water. One leaf looking like that happens every once in a while. But if the entire plant is looking floppy, I'm going to guess that you're not watering this one often enough, and that's what's causing the floppiness.

I just re-read this, and I feel a little like Dr. Ruth--floppiness, etc., maybe needs Viagra.

Ok, not.

You might try watering this one a little more often. Seriously, I think that will help.

[Cinderella]

I think you are right, Louis. I didn't water this one much in an attempt to not overwater it (!). I am putting it into s/h; I find that the oncidium alliance really seem to like the s/h. So I guess all of those roots will die over time but it really seemed to need repotting or something! I saw a couple of tiny roots growing so hopefully they will adapt to the new medium.

Thanks!