Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Not-so-simple Cymbidiums

Seems like forever ago...


Well, a lot has happened with my Cym, mostly things only working to further its demise. I moved it from my room, which didn't provide it with much light (apparently my room is on the wrong side of the house...), to my brother's room, which is unoccupied at the moment and gets a good blast of sun each day, if there's sunlight to be had, that is.
Before moving it, I took notice of this raised spot on one of the leaves. I wasn't sure what it was, but thought that upon closer inspection I might discover the truth of the matter. I did. Kind of.


I at least found out that what I thought was an issue was just the tip of the iceberg, to facilitate an over-used expression. Yep, something was, based on what I now know, clawing their way inside my orchid and eating its insides for brunch. Mm, brunch.





So, once my Cym made its way into my li'l brudders room it received much more light, and love, because I made a point of checking on it more often than was regular since it wasn't there for me when I woke up.

Unfortunately, it lost a lot of its leaves, mostly from the aforementioned bug-eating junkers. It was made into brunch.
Browning bulbs; they were squishy and wrinkled.
After losing many, many leaves, I took note of how several of the bulbs were turning brown. I was very distressed. At the front, bottom-most part of the above picture you can see one of the smaller bulbs, leaf-less, brown, mushy. In other words, completely dead. The bulb on the right side of the picture was in a similar state. I removed both.

So, yesterday I posted some pleas for help on two orchid forums, and need to post some photos up there, which is partially why I include these photos, and partially because I know that you, dear reader, are eager to learn of my Cym's current conditions.


Third-youngest stalk,
notice the colour.
Dissection of the third-youngest stalk.
It smelled like death.
White substance (mold?) on the base
of a leaf from an old bulb.



These pictures break my heart.

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