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Sick Cycnoches
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Posted by catlover_gardener SFLMiami (My Page) on Wed, Jul 18, 07 at 15:25
| I have a Cycnoches Wine Delight that always blooms at this time. However, I noticed a dark brown sunken spot, about the size of a quarter on the trunk below the leaves. The trunk was also bent, like it couldn't support itself. Anyway, I sprayed with a fungicide/insecticide and watched it. Few days later I handled it and noticed that it felt limp, turned it over to the other side of the trunk and saw that there was another sunken spot underneath. Soon the sunken spots would have met in the middle and it would have fallen off its base. I sprayed again with fungicide again and sprinkled with cinnamon.
Do yu think something is eating away at it or is it some disease or what?
I have had this plant for so long, I would be sad to see it die. If the top did fall off bz of disease or continues to be eaten away, would it send out new leaves again from somewhere else?
I can see that it is gearing up to send out spikes, but now what........? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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- Posted by tab64 9b FL-Orlando (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 18, 07 at 16:16
| Sometimes the Catasetum family can be tempermental. What I would do is you have the 2 halves. The lower half check to see if the roots are still good. Ctsm types will rot real fast if the roots go bad and it is still getting water. If they are still good cut it down to good area and add cinnamon. To the upper half cut till you find good bulb and sprinkle w/cinnamon but keep this dry. No water it should sprout new growth. Keep the upper half outside so it gets our normal high Florida humidity. |
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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| If the black spots are soft and mushy, then it's probably curtains, although I think that your efforts were correct. Cycs and their relatives (especially cycs over ctsms and morms, IMO) are very sensitive to rot - a splash of water in an under-aerated area could be all it takes. I think you have a single pb? If not, cut the bad one off the plant, and the main plant is likely to create a new growth next year. Possibly this year, too. If you have just the 1 pb, and want to try to save the plant... ...cut off the spikes/nubs (sorry!), and cut off the top off the pb at least 1/2 inch above the rot. Dust it with cinnamon, and let it dry. Personally, I would leave the leaves because they should still provide some energy to the pb, and they will die when they are ready. Please it in a well-aerated area (maybe on a bed of dry sphag) and lightly mist it daily to prevent it from shriveling up. Make sure any water dries within a few hours!!! Hope it forms a new lead at an eye :) I had had very good success with this procedure. If you get a new growth this year, don't expect much, but it will then become the growth where a new lead should grow next year. Good luck!
Carolyn |
RE: forgot the question
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- Posted by tab64 9b FL-Orlando (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 18, 07 at 16:24
| Oh you question about something eating it. I have had this happed to some Ctsm. I do not think it is something eating it. Since you mentioned the black soft spot. They can get rot, since they grow in very wet conditions, and the humidity adds. Are they getting good air movement? If they do not get good air movement all the moisture in the air will rot them fast. |
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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| I have found this rapid rotting not uncommon on Cycnoches species, which I consider more difficult to grow than Catasetums because of this very problem. Cut off the top of the bulb above the rot and follow tab's instructions with the cinnamon and it may still bloom for you if the buds are fairly well formed already and the rot doesn't spread further upward. Cut off all the rot down to clean green tissue on the plant side, treat with cinnamon to help the wound dry faster, and cross your fingers. The main plant is fully capable of putting out new growth from the base of that bulb and older bulbs, so it will probably survive. Let it dry well and it would probably be beneficial not to water it for a while since it is temporarily in a state of dormancy now. It's not necessarily anything you did wrong. Cycnoches as a genus just seems to be very susceptible to these various rots. Although the flowers are magnificent, I am slowly moving away from them myself for this reason. |
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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| Geez, I thought these guys were almost impossible to rot when they're actively growing. My barthiorum is almost constantly wet. Albeit, I don't ever wet the foliage or the p-bulbs. |
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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- Posted by tab64 9b FL-Orlando (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 18, 07 at 20:55
| They are somewhat like masdevallias in the sense they love to be wet. But some will rot very fast if are left too wet usally at night just like getting crown rot on a Phal. Good air movement usally will help with the drying of the leaves and the small areas where water will sit between the leaves and stem. The rots like to stay more wet but not the parts above the roots. cjwatson has a point about Cycnoches being the more tempermental in the group. My problem Cycnoches is the herrenhusanum. I love it but it is hard to keep alive more than a year or two, for me at least. Mordodes is another hard one with rot so your Wine Delight has two points aginst it Cycnoches and Mormodes. Catasetums are almost hard to kill. They sprout all along the stem. My Pileatum and Maculatum send up new shouts on just above every old leaf node. |
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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| cut the top and bottom of the "mushy" section out with a hot knife leaving 2 parts of good healthy green tissue ---sealing the cut with the hot knife--hear it sizzle---maybe use some wet captan power to help seal the wound---if everything works well you might get 2 plants growing next spring good luck
mark |
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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| I read and re-read everyone's comments. Am I supposed to cut the orchid in two, clean out the black spots until I see clean green, and then keep the upper half in a humid spot? This means I will have to cut my orchid!!!!! in two, and I am afraid that it will die. The top half; and what about the bottom half? Do you think it will really sprout another pb? There are already two old pbs beside the rotted one. This orchid hangs high on a wrought iron door on a hook, gets good air movement and bright, bright morning and afternoon light. That's why it always blooms beautifully. It looks like the pb has been gouged out with a scoop in two places, front and back of the pb,one spot higher than the other, hence the limp look.
I am surprised to see this rot bz it has been through all sorts of setbacks, and I have a lot of lizards and snails, that I am battling (the snails, esp)and it has always survived. That is why I thought it was being eaten by critters. Anyway I will follow the suggestions, but before that will someone please clarify the steps for me, esp the cutting parts. |
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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Yes, you are going to cut much of the bad bulb off. If you don't you will lose the entire plant.
Cut off the rotten area all the way down to clean green tissue on the bottom of the bulb. It's from the base that the plant puts out new growth, so this is the most important part of all. Then, cut the rotten area from what's left of the top of the bulb; maybe it will bloom, maybe it will even put out a new growth some months down the road. Toss the rotten stuff, dust both clean cut ends, keep them dry until you see new growth with new roots, and pray to the Great Orchid God. If the rot hasn't gone down into the base of the bulb, you have an excellent chance of saving the main plant. Okay? Just grit your teeth and do it. Otherwise, the plant is lost. |
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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| o.k. Thanks all for the good advice and I am going home to nurse the sick one!!! |
RE: Sick Cycnoches
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| wow CJ that almost seemed like an intervention :) way to go |
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