psychopsis emergency

[Mark V]

I was clumsy and knocked over my psychopsis Mendenhall pot. It was a lucky accident because discovered it has only three, half inch long, live roots. All the rest are brown and dead as a doornail. I have obviously been over watering big time. I trimmed off the dead roots and placed the plant on top of fresh bark in a four slotted clay pot. I have stopped watering for the last week, only misting three times a day with a 1/8 strength 20-20-20 solution. Any advice would be welcomed.

[Piper]

Diane is our resident Psychopsis queen. She may be tromping through a bird sanctuary this weekend, she's also our resident ornithology queen, but she'll be back...

My advice is to stop doing that. It's hard on the spike.

McJulie

[Mark V]

Diane is our resident Psychopsis queen. She may be tromping through a bird sanctuary this weekend, she's also our resident ornithology queen, but she'll be back...

My advice is to stop doing that. It's hard on the spike.

McJulie

Other than smacking the pot around, is there anything else I should stop doing? Maybe a dram of Glenmorangie would perk it up? I know it works on me.

[Piper]

Give the plant a dram of kelp extract - save the Glenmorangie for you! You'll need it after dropping pots!

I'm hardly one to comment! After I had both knees replaced a year and a half ago, I was regularly playing soccer with my orchids. I felt that I couldn't burden my friends with watering them - that I had so many was my own fault, therefore I should be responsible for caring for them. Yet with a crutch wedged under each armpit, unsteady on my feet, and more than a little drugged, it was very awkward carrying them into the bathroom for a drink. Several got pitched around the room.

I also manage to snap nearly-opened buds off my Paphs, usually one a year. Luckily this year's has happened. Should be good now till 2007!

When you wrote about dropping your Psychopsis I cringed. So many people here have written about how they've snapped their Psychopsis spikes, and I just can't imagine an orchid that you'd less want to drop.

Good luck with your guy! It sounds like it wasn't in spike. Get the roots coming back and maybe it will reward you! I'm thinking sphagnum rather than bark, for more even moisture, and perhaps a bit of rooting compound. But I'd definitely follow whatever advice Diane has - she's great with Psychosis!

McJulie

[Diane]

Another psychopsis abuse case! Welcome to the club!! They are, I have found, really tough plants. After all, they are oncidiums of a sort and quite vigorous once you get them started. I would stick to bark. They like to dry almost completely before watering again. If it is in spike, with a bud forming, I would mist the spike once a day with plain water - just to keep the bud happy. I would definitely give it some rooting hormone. I prefer the powdered king so you know it is getting the full benefit.

So - here is the ABCs of what I would do.

A. Get rooting hormone

B. Soak bark mixture for several hours to thoroughly dampen

C. Put hormone on plant around root zone and pot up with damp bark mixture.

Let it go for at least 7 to 10 days before watering again - check the media with your finger to see if it is still moist... Water minimally till you see new roots. If it is in spike/bud, you may lose it, but another will grow as soon as the roots are healthy.

Send the Glenmorangie to ME!!!!

[Piper]

I'm sitting here shaking my head laughing. Not over Diane's sage advice...but over my own serendipitous spasticity. Things are getting tight here. That's no surprise, since I continue to buy plants and convince myself I can squeeze just one or a dozen more in. I've spent a very pleasant afternoon watering, fertilizing, repotting, hanging more hooks, and laying out a lovely Neofinetia shrine. That involved buying artisanal cheeses, because I wanted the ceramic pots the cheese came in!

Anyway, I was purring as I worked, having discovered a few new spikes quite unexpectedly. And then, it happened so fast. Some leaf I carried caught some other leaf - close quarters, remember my chids are packed in tight - I'm squishing up against furniture, tilting whatever's in my hands and now leaf strikes Psychopsis spike tied securely to a stake, and my Psychopsis topples...bounces on the lower plant shelf...twists, and then falls to the floor.

I watched helplessly. Drooling in my disbelief that God would punish my earlier smart-assed comment to Mark so efficiently and in such a cruel - but appropriate - manner. If only Congress acted so quickly. God has a twisted sense of humor, but no mean streak. The pot landed upright behind a plant shelf. It required a bit of extrication, but the spike was well secured to the stake and suffered no damage.

I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.

McStupid

[Mehera]

Wow--miracle save!

I would love to see a pic of the Neo shrine.

[orchid-man]

I'm sitting here shaking my head laughing. Not over Diane's sage advice...but over my own serendipitous spasticity. Things are getting tight here. That's no surprise, since I continue to buy plants and convince myself I can squeeze just one or a dozen more in. I've spent a very pleasant afternoon watering, fertilizing, repotting, hanging more hooks, and laying out a lovely Neofinetia shrine. That involved buying artisanal cheeses, because I wanted the ceramic pots the cheese came in!

Anyway, I was purring as I worked, having discovered a few new spikes quite unexpectedly. And then, it happened so fast. Some leaf I carried caught some other leaf - close quarters, remember my chids are packed in tight - I'm squishing up against furniture, tilting whatever's in my hands and now leaf strikes Psychopsis spike tied securely to a stake, and my Psychopsis topples...bounces on the lower plant shelf...twists, and then falls to the floor.

I watched helplessly. Drooling in my disbelief that God would punish my earlier smart-assed comment to Mark so efficiently and in such a cruel - but appropriate - manner. If only Congress acted so quickly. God has a twisted sense of humor, but no mean streak. The pot landed upright behind a plant shelf. It required a bit of extrication, but the spike was well secured to the stake and suffered no damage.

I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.
I will not make smart-assed comments about another's misfortune again.

McStupid

Punished already

[sake of silence]

Doing a peroxide cleansing if your roots are rotted away would be a good idea as well. Kill off any pathogens lingering... I do it once a month on my psychopsi'. Since were on the subject I bought Pyp. butterfly to add to my collection the other week! My noid rescue s going to bloom in the next week, so sharpen your skills, because I want to know it is.

[Diane]

You have a noid rescue psychopsis???