Psychopsis papilio - shrinked bulbs?

[dortyuz]

Hi,

I received a psychopsis papilio from a friend, but the plant was kept too much in transit so the bulbs were shrinked and the substrate was completely dry. I placed the pot in warm water for a while, the roots close to the bulbs seem to be greenish and healthy, but the bulbs are still shrinked.

Does it have a chance of recovering?

Cheers,

Burak.

[Piper]

My Psychopsis versteegianum has pretty flat, unimpressive p-bulbs, but my Pyp Mariposa (papilo x Kalihi) has fat, round bulbs. Post a picture. We can better answer you if we can see the plant. Diane's our Pyp expert - she's got a number of different species. And that's important, because there seems to be a bit of plant variation between the different species.

McJulie

[Diane]

Psychopsis can survive short drying spells. Be careful not to get it too wet. It is less tolerant of being wet. Water lightly but frequently for the next couple of weeks. The bulbs often have some wrinkles, and that may never go away, but the plant should survive. Please post a picture when you get the chance.

[dortyuz]

well, I posted some images, but as it is one of my first post it was not direcly accepted. There may be a dozen of the same post if all of my trials are accepted

edit: I discovered the attachment option

[smartie2000]

Beautiful plant you have there with nice mottled leaves!

My Pyp Mariposa has green leaves unfortunately, but a new leaf has red stripes. I have mine in a shallow bonsai pot (it would be nice to have pretty foliage in this pot like yours) with large coconut chunks and sphag moss top dressing and sometimes I think it dries faster than my other orchids, even though I water them the same. Occasionally the pseudobulbs will shrivel when I forget to water in the summer with direct sun, but they plump up fast and its a vigorous plant.

Anyways I am sure those bulbs will plump back up with some watering as suggested by Diane our expert. Some will still have some small ridges that will never go away, like the one in the first and second picture. They are the older bulbs. The plant looks healthy to me, just dehydrated.

[Mahon]

That plant looks great! Looks like there is no problem there... I had many plants of Pys. papillio, and many of the plants had bulbs more wrinkled and flatter than yours. Even some of the other species of Psychopsis tend to have wrinkled bulbs...

-Pat

[Diane]

I think the plant looks very good. I have a couple with the red mottled leaves and always enjoy them, even when not in bloom. I do not like to grow them in the coir fiber, which is what you have. I always move mine to large bark. The fiber works well where there is sufficient humidity - so you need to consider your growing area. That plant looks very healthy, and I thing it could send a spike any time after the next leaf - it needs a couple good sized leaves to support a bloom spike.

[dortyuz]

My other Psychopsis, Mariposa, is in large bark mix as you suggested Diane,and it gave a very large leaf recently. I think it will send out a spike as there is no further action for about two months.

Shall I wait for the roots to settle down after that dry-spell to change the substrate? I am really afraid of damaging the roots at this state.

[smartie2000]

I don't think there's a need to wait too long for the roots to settle down. It will be stimulated to grow new roots once it is in new substrate and settle. If the fibers are not the right substrate for you the plant may decline. I did read somewhere that they are picky about repotting though so don't disturb the roots too much...I think you need to let the younger pseudobulbs plump up a little first (the third picture), but it's really not that shrivelled, or important to wait.
I repotted mine into the bonsai pot right away when I bought it though the mail in the middle of winter, but I didn't change the substrate, and it shot out tons of roots and growth. The roots are pushing the plant out of the shallow pot right now...I repot all my mail orders right away if I need to

[sake of silence]

They look fine to me, I have some that are equally shriveled but still produce new growths or spikes.