Orchids How To: Saving a rootless Oncidium

I adopted this plant in the bargain corner of IKEA for 30 euro cents in November 7, 2011, it had only the few aerial roots out of the pot, all that was inside was just a black mass ...

The cause is certainly standing water that led to a bad attack of fungi (Pythium or Phytophthora) because of the compound into the vessel, there was no bark, just mush.

Once clean and dry, looked like this:

Oncidium hybrid orchid, few healthy roots, just bought from the bargain corner

Oncidium orchid hybrid, few healthy roots,
just bought from the bargain corner

Oncidium hybrid orchid, few roots still alive

The powder you see is cinnamon, the one for sweets, I put it where I cut off the rotten parts of the rhizome, reading on the Internet I found that it has antibacterial and antifungal properties but be careful not to overuse of it because it can damage the tissue of healthy roots. The pseudobulbs were only dehydrated and with a principle of rot, it was not so bad, I made a series of baths of about 4 hours in the water and propamocarb + fosetyl aluminum (dose of 3 ml per liter) repeated about every week for 4 times (to be safe). The orchid gave no sign for a while, of course, was traumatized and it was not a good season ... I placed it in about 3 cm of medium size bark in a bottom of perforated plastic bottle instead af a normal pot. The bottle-pot was in a clear vase with wet expanded-clay to give more air humidity ... I know is not possible to understand all this situation like I explained it! Maybe with a picture is better!

Oncidium hybrid orchid, temporary repotted, lays on wet expanded clay

Oncidium hybrid orchid, temporary repotted, on wet expanded clay

I put the roots under the bark, the bark did'nt touch the water and it was almost always dry, sometimes I sprayed near the edge of the bottle to do not let the roots too dry and get them used to an higher humidity. I believe that for this process is essential to take a long time, the aerial roots, ie those grown in free air, rot veeeery easily if are suddenly put under a layer of material that is damp or, worse, wet . For this plant I continued to give a light sprinkling every now and then for about a month (once or twice a week). This is because in mid-December ...

Oncidium hybrid orchid, new growing speudobulb

there it is, in the middle of winter! A new shoot of pseudobulb! Of course, the plant was inside my flat, with minimum temperatures 18C°, maximum 22C°, but on the window sill where I did not measur, maybe they were a bit different 'cause the cold outside (even -20C°) and the radiator under the sill...
However, the small pseudobulb has a little dried up the two "parents" but was finally able to pull out its roots, then I added a little' of bark, a total of about 5 or 6 cm. Towards the end of January the new roots were about 2 cm long and I stepped up the watering. At the beginning always watered with sprinkler, wetting the leaves and the pseudobulbs, so increasingly, until I get to once a day, anyway after a couple of hours was all dry again. In March I started with baths! Now I can put the pot in water for about 2 hours (due to the starting dehydration) when the roots and the soil is completely dry, every 2 or 3 baths get one with fertilizer, diluted 0.5 grams per liter of water, (NPK 28-14-14 for growth, now 20-20-20).
I read about oncidium that like to stay a little moist between waterings otherwise you'll have new bulbs with curly leaves, sterile, that can not bloom! However, this plant is an hybrid from mall, so is very strong, and in my opinion even if it dries out one more day should flower. Let's hope so! When the new jet has stopped I watered even less, leaving it dry (white roots, light bark, no condensation in the jar) up to 4 days, is a bit too much but sometimes I'm missing something.