air roots...

[Tim]

Hi, all!

I'm new to the forum, been growing orchids for a couple years now..at least keeping them alive!

My Oncidium bloomed for me the second year I had it (ths past summer), but it is doing some screwy root growth, as it is rooting from the base of one of the pseudo bulbs into the air. Just afters it grew these roots, it spiked and flowered from one of the bulbs that was rooting. I have a couple pictures and I wonder how I should care for this guy? The plant is not the best specimen, mostly because it took awhile to get the lighting figured out.

I live in Centennial, a suburb of Denver, Colorado, I water twice weekly by putting the pot into the sink and flooding it until the roots go clear (know what I mean?).

Any help will be greatfully received!

Tim

[KC C]

Have you checked the condition of the media? If the orchid isn't quite happy with the media it will send its roots elsewhere.

[Mehera]

Hi Tim, welcome to Orchid Talk. I also live in Colorado. All I can say is that my oncs are doing the same thing, and they are also thriving. I plan to repot next spring. I know my media is OK because they were just repotted last May.

[orchid-man]

it is just normal for most orchids to produce aerial roots.Oncidiums are some of the best at doing it.

[bench72]

just wanted to say WELCOME to RVO, Tim!

your Oncidium is doing much better than mine so seems you are doing things right by it. Well done!

cheers
P.o.p. (aka Tim)

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Welcome Tim!

Your oncid looks fine to me. Arieal roots are really common.

Cheers,
BD

[Tim]

Talk about resurrecting an old thread! Thanks to all that answered before as it made me more comfortable and I have just left the plant alone.

My oncid is still cruising along and is just now producing a prodiqious amount of those air roots...maybe its a precursor to a new spike.

At any rate, when I got this orchid it had NO air roots and a beautiful bloom (natch!), so now I figure it's time to repot as it's trying to tip over, etc., and I wonder the best method. What do I do with the exposed roots, what do I do with the old growth that has lost the leaves, do I chop off the old pseudobulbs and put the new rooted pseudobulbs into the medium?

Thanks!

Tim

[Ron-NY]

I have found that many of these Oncs tend to climb. I was always having them climb upwards, making the pot want to fall over. I have now mounted mine and let them grow up a piece of treefern. They now seem happier but I have the advantage of having access to a greenhouse so that humidity is not an issue.

When repotting, you don't want to remove all of the old p-bulbs. When I divide, I keep about 5 p-bulbs to a division. This allows them strength not to miss a beat with blooming.

[smartie2000]

Looks normal to me. My oncium sharry baby looks like a mountain because of this sort of habit. Well at least I didn't need to give it a bigger pot, it just keeps piling up its growths. And the aerial roots are normal too, these orchids are epiphytes.

[Piper]

Hi Tim,

Your plant doesn't look all that huge yet from that old picture. I wouldn't divide it yet. Oncs do love to climb up out of the pot. I tend to pot the older p-bulbs down into the medium, so the newer ones have a chance at being near it. Let the aerial roots do their thing. Trying to rope them into the pot would probably just break them.

McJulie