Oncidium heaven scent 'redolence' questions

[tjay]

I live in the central Florida area and am new to growing orchids. I recently purchased an Oncidium heaven scent 'redolence' that was in bloom at the time of purchase. After 3 or 4 weeks, the spike began to die and the flowers fell off, so I cut the spike off at its base. I have read much of how this oncidium is supposed to be a very fast grower, and easy to maintain. My problem is after owning it for 2 months now, I have yet to see any new growth. It is sitting on my front porch, which is very close to the bright daylight. It is growing in what looks like a pine bark nugget medium, in a small clay pot. I water it once every 5 to 7 days, and have fertilized it twice now with 0.5 strength 30—10—10 miracle grow orchid food. Recently it has developed yellowing of several leaf tips with brown holes. My question is what do I need to do differently to get it to grow into a healthy plant. Do I need to re pot it? move it into full sun? move it indoors? water more frequently? please help! Ive included a few pictures to show what Im talking about. Thanks!

[Ruth]

hi I hope this helps Onc like lots of water if it is hot where you live give it a water every second day In the morning .I would also cut down on the fertilizer or try another one very little and often is better than a lot is my motto If you have a sprayer put some water in it and add a small amount of some liquid fertilizer about 1 mill to a litre of water and mist the leaves every morning only if it is warm. The browning on the leaves could be to much fertilizer . Don"t over pot it that pot should do for another year .

[cindiras]

It does look like fertilizer burn on the leaf tip. Maybe go to a time release pellot and plain water? I use 1/4 teaspoon (measuring spoon) per pot for the three month time the manufacturer recommends. If you water with tap water and your town puts chlorine in the water, be sure to let your water sit in an open container overnight before using it on your orchis. This gives the chlorine a chance to outgas.

[Babbaabby]

Hi. Mine only blooms once a year. I think the pot is OK, but you can trim off the dying leaf tips. It may be getting too much sun as well. Do you feed it? If so what and how often?

[AtantaR]

hmmmmm i find oncidium alliance to be a pain in the butt and slow to grow if they arent very well established. This plant you have only has 3 pseudobulbs and who knows what the roots look like. They do love that water tho, yet like to be dry to..I would have to agree with the fertilizer part. Less is better..and sometimes I give them 5-6 hours of sunlight with no problem, granted i dont live in florida anymore...hmmm.i dont know...like i said im not very good with them, but I dont kill them either,...haha....i wouldnt worry about the spots and leaf tips. That could be do to alot of different things. As long as it doesnt take over the whole leaf you should be fine. If it has some good roots tho and you keep up with the water, then you will see some plump bulbs and some new growth soon i bet

[Cjcorner]

Hello fellow Floridian...I live just West of you and understand how difficult oncidiums can seem down here. You have it on the porch it looks like which will be okay until it gets hot this spring. Then you will want to take it indoors and keep it in a window with Southern exposure if possible. East will work well also. Just ease back on your fertilizer some. These don't need as much fertilizer as others. Otherwise it's healthy. Orchids "growing fast" is actually kind of a lie as orchids can take up to a year to develop a bulb on some plants, while others will add many more. It's up to the size and age of the plant as to how fast it grows. Be patient, for a starter plant you have chosen well. You will see new growth soon, hang in there.

[AtantaR]

^-------- is Embarrassed

LOL.....darn it.....I always forget to look at the dates of these threads before i start rambling

Hi. Mine only blooms once a year. I think the pot is OK, but you can trim off the dying leaf tips. It may be getting too much sun as well. Do you feed it? If so what and how often?

Well since i dont pay attention very well maybe you can use some of my rants, Abby...lol

[Babbaabby]

I'll take all the help I can get! Thanks :-)

[Laura81]

How long ago did you last repot it with fresh medium? Could the bark be broken down? Looks fine from the top, but it's hard to say what the interior of the pot looks like. I'd pull it out and check the condition of the roots, also. If the root system is bad, that might explain why it isn't putting out new growth.

I have this exact same hybrid, and I recently repotted it into a coconut husk/hydroton based potting media, but before that it was in a 2-inch pot with only a small amount of sphagnum moss around the top of the roots. The interior of the pot was basically bare-root. It seems to like to be tightly potted, with a lot of air available to the roots. Mine blooms about every six months on a new growth.

[coeruleo]

heaven scent 'redolence' is the progeny of O. Sharry Baby. Sharry Baby is known to get little dark spots on the upper portion of the leaves when getting plenty of sun, and should be ignorred as long as it does not bother you asthetically. often, when trying to get them to bloom, they need enough sun to cause this spotting, and it does not harm the plant. the leaf tips burning are a sign of too much fertilizer most likely. Oncidiums like weak fertilizing, and make sure to water with plain water in between to flush extra minerals out. i reccomend once a month to set the pot and all in a sink of water (cafeul not to let the water be deeper, or the bark will float out) and let it soak really well for an hour or so, then put it back outside. Here in CA where it is very dry i water twice week, and mist almost daily. Oncidiums grow fast compared to other orchids, but orchid plants are not always growing. sometimes, like after flowering, they need to rest some before a new flush of growth. however, Oncidiums do get big quickly, as they often produce more than one new lead per bulb. so the plant will become 'specimen size' more quickly than say, a Cattleya or Dendrobium might. for the burning, maybe you could try weaker solution of your fertilizer, or another brand. i fertilize at 1/4 strength or even less. and i still get a little burn on the tips sometimes. the bark looks awfully big for an oncidium, i use smaller grade with some moss and pearlite to retain a little more moisture.