Orchid Advice Needed

I was given this orchid last Christmas and having at that stage not started my interest in gardening, once it had finished flowering, left it sitting in water for the next 5 months! It looked like it was going to die however having then discoverd this water I re-potted it and hoped for the best. By now half of it had shrivelled up so I cut half of that away and as you can see from the photos the other half of the shrivelled section is still there and still shrivelled. One of my questions is should I cut that away now, even though it has a leaf at the top, to allow the plant to concentrate more growth on the other healthy half. The amazing thing is that about six weeks ago I noticed a purpleish spike growing, shown in the photos which I think must be a flower spike. My second question is is it indeed a flower spike? Now that this very badly treated plant seems to be growing I am looking after it as best I can - if it does flower it will be my first Orchid! I have quite a good book on Orchids which talks about cutting away dead and old sections however it doesnt show anything like this shrivelled bit of mine, which I think is obviously due to being submerged and therefore unusual - The only thing I can add is that the shrivelled bit hasnt grown or changed at all since I rescued the plant. The leaf at the top is the same size and maybe a little darker. My theory is that if I cut it away since it is obviously a bulb or growing section on its own it will enable the plant to put more energy into the healthy part. Any advice on this will be much appreciated as I'm desperate to get the knife out!

 

Picture was very slow to come up. Not all the pictures are coming up on my screen, though it looks like something I would trim off, doesn't look good that leaf.

[ 19. January 2006, 05:52 PM: Message edited by: lisa0307 ]

 

After what happened to it - I would leave all well alone - and just see how it does now that you have your book. Have you got the orchid feed?

 

That certainly is a flower spike, so I agree with Fran, feed it! The shrivelled part is odd because I would have expected too much water to cause rot, whereas that looks as if it suffered from water starvation. I would leave it on unless it is soggy rather than dried up, it's a different bulb so shouldn't affect the bulb which is flowering. I think if you're lucky the shrivelled bulb might grow another bulb.
The new leaves being lighter is a good sign, very dark leaves usually mean not enough light.
Do you know what kind it is? If you can remember what the flower looked like it would help to identify it. Tiny yellow flowers, probably oncidium, larger ones with a spike like gladioli, cymbidium.

[ 20. January 2006, 01:24 PM: Message edited by: Liz ]

 

Hi Charlie, I found this:-
http://www.orchidlady.com/encyclopedia/orchid_growth_types.html
Looks as if it's a oncidium [flower from inside 1st leaf rather than base of bulb]?
I love orchids but being poor tend to buy damaged, lost label or otherwise reduced specimens, and often don't know what they are. Most books have pictures which concentrate on flowers, which isn' t helpful if you haven't got one, so this site helped me!
Just found this on same site!
http://www.orchidlady.com/orcpics/shriveledbulbs.html
:D :D :D

[ 20. January 2006, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: Liz ]

 

Fantastic Liz that second link is exactly like mine - I will now put the knife away as the advice is to keep it because it may well still grow another flower. Its extraordinary because the link clearly states that this shrivelled condition is caused by water starvation however I can guarantee you that this wretched plant sat in a pool of water for many months - after that I began to care for it in the normal way. Whatever the case I must have been mistaken. Thank you very much for finding that.

 

I found this photo of the plant in flower - can anyone tell me which sort of orchid it is from this

 

Looks like an Odontoglossum. If it stood in a pool of water the roots would have rotted, thereby starving the plant of water.

[ 20. January 2006, 09:04 PM: Message edited by: pete2255 ]

 

I have an orchid that looks very similar to those photos, it's been growing and flowering well for the last 4yrs. Unfortunately unbeknown to me, my husband has recently started watering it! A couple days ago I bought some orchid compost and split the large plant into three, the roots are not looking too good although the leaves are still nice and green. Do you think it has any chance of surviving?

 

The nearest I could find was this pic., so I think Pete's right. There are so many hybrids that it's about as close as you'll get!

http://www.odontoglossumalliance.org/odontoglossum.htm
mbweim, did your husband water it too much? It should be OK, new roots will probably grow. It might take a long time before it settles down and flowers again.

 

Hi Liz, Yes it was definitly overwatered, the compost was totally saturated, I think most of the roots had rotted and to make matters worse he had been using tap water. I've banned him from doing anything to them now!

I'll keep my fingers crossed they survive.

 

Thanks all for the input - I've learnt much - and one thing I know I mustn't do (Mandy) is get the knife out. Sadly the tip of the flower spike is now withering or looking that way anyway. I think its because I sprayed the plant with folar plant food tree leaf shine - I hear you all scream!!! Its all a learning curve - the good news is that the plant now sits in perfect conditions and looks very healthy - if the spike does fail maybe I'll have better luck next year!? Didnt know about the tap water issue though - are you saying I use bottled water?

 

Hi Charlie, I always use rain water from the water butt, or previously boiled water, just leave it to stand until it's at room temperature before using.

Fingers crossed my plants aren't looking too bad... so far.

 

Hi, I use rainwater for the indoor plants mainly because some don't like hard water and chlorine. Also the hard water makes a deposit on leaves and pots which is unsightly.