The Orchid Garden

Sick Cymbidium

Question:

I rescued a Cymbidium orchid from Lowe’s about six months ago.  It was only $5 and it looked very sad.  It is my first orchid.  It’s root system, to me, looks atrocious, and hasnt improved.  Half of the roots seem rotted out and the other half are just barely hanging in there.  There arent too many nice firm roots and absolutely none with green tips as I’m told orchids should have.  The pseudobulbs are wrinkly. I don’t know if this is normal.  Some of them have black/brown spots on them which i dont think is a sign of health either.  It has recovered some though, and one of the pseudobulbs made a new leaf this summer.  But now another psuedobulb is looking very sickly and like it is going do die.   The orchid lives in a clay pot in bark that i water once or twice a week, whenever it’s all dry.  I feed it pretty dilute orchid food.  It is also on some rocks with water.  I lives in a south window that is mini-blinded with white miniblinds so it gets a good amount of light.  I moved to north carolina recently and it seems to like here less than Illinois.   Does anyone have any suggestions on how to help it?  And are the psudobulbs supposed to be all wrinkled?  The seem to be getting more wrinkled.   Thanks for any help. Megan Jatko

Response:

Firstly don’t worry too much it is really difficult to kill a Cymbidium. It’s a bit late in the year to repot, but it might be worth it, the problem is that it will probably mean no flower spike next spring.  Cymbidiums are cool growing and get stressed up with temperatures above about 80F. Never allow direct sunshine to fall on the leaves during the summer. Spray the leaves daily. If you do decide to repot, remove all back bulbs, you call them psudo bulbs, that are wrinkled and shrivelled with black marks.  retain those that are plump and either green or pale brown. cut out all roots that are dark brown only retain the plump pale coloured ones. It is essential that you retain the good back bulbs as these are a food store for the plant.  Be careful handling the roots they are very brittle. Use a knife dipped in disinfectant to cut and dust the cuts with sulphur. Pot into fresh bark. Hope this helps. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I rescued a Cymbidium orchid from Lowe’s about six months ago

Response:

Filed under: Cymbidium Orchids

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