psychopsis emergency

[Mark V]

Diane, psychopsis mustt want to live very much, cause this one is putting out new growth quite vigorously with only three tiny roots. But none of the pseudo bulbs are fat and happy, they are flat and wrinkled. On the other hand the color is great.
Would wiring the plant down to the bark help? The few roots have little or no contact with the growing medium. And maybe super glue the pot to the bench.
"serendipitous spasticity" Now that rolls trippingly off the tongue, Julie. Every good forum needs a good natured tease.

[Diane]

Ah! You are not familiar with rhizome clips.... They are handy little bent wire things made for holding rootless or semi-rootless orchids down in their media. You can definitely make your own. You want the oldest pbulb to be low in the media - so new roots grow within the media. So you need to create the wire set up so that it can exert downward pressure on the plant to hold it into the media, plus help stabilize the plant. As for the pbulbs - the older ones will wrinkle. Can't help that now, just concentrate on keeping new growth healthy!

[Piper]

Damn it, Jim - I'm an orchid surgeon, not a brick layer... Now someone hand me my damned trichorder!

Sorry, Horta! You're not on this dance card...

McJulie

[sake of silence]

You have a noid rescue psychopsis???

It had a spike and was sitting in a saucer of water, just about to completly rot away, put out a new growht as well. 20 bucks for a decently developed Pyp isnt bad...

New Pyschopsis butterfly.

[Diane]

My best guess is Psychopsis Butterfly - which is sanderae x papilio. But there can be wide variation in blossoms... so you may never be certain.

[Petalsofsugar]

Boy McJulie, God is very swift with his punishments. LOL I'll have to remember what has happened to you and be more careful with my thoughts. Don't want to be punished.

Julie in Iowa

[Piper]

God reserves the fast response for smart-assess!

McJulie

[Gin]

I would put it in a slat basket in Spag. anchor basket to a shelf in pipers case with Cable ties ... no more smart assed comments lolololololololololololol giggle giggle ... snort ! Gin

[Mark V]

I got the rooting hormone. I have soaked the seedling grade bark mix and added a bit of spag. to the mix. While rinsing the plant base with H2O2 I found some more dead roots and a mass of soft, brown, rotted stuff that sort of reminds me of florists mineral foam. I used the kitchen sink sprayer hose to power wash the stuff out and exposed some more dead and live roots, all the live ones are less than half an inch long. When the soft rotted mass was removed and all the dead roots were excised there was only the most tenuous of connections between the oldest four growths and the newest clump of five growths. Now that the garbage is out I can see half a dozen or more root tips growing on each section. I am very tempted to split the plant and have two psychopsis. Dare I?

[Sarah]

The "mass of soft, brown, rotted stuff" sounds like rock wool - I HATE that stuff! I always find dead roots in it.

...and Gin, I don't know what I'd do without reading at least one smart assed comment from McJ each day....as long as she pays for it