Orchids often have a really hard time surviving in their natural environment. Especially the ones that are exposed to great extremes, like prolonged periods of drought, have developed some kind of bulbs – that look like bulbs but they are not, that are called pseudobulbs.
These pseudobulbs are storage organs for these orchids that enable them to survive longer periods of rest so they can successfully start to grow even before the favorable conditions for growth and maturing of their growth come with changing seasons.
These pseudobulbs are very important for orchids and have strong influence on their growth. These pseudobulbs are connected with each other and so it can easily be observed that the new growth is always bigger then the old growth. It happens because the old pseudobulbs pass their nutrients to the new growth and more of these old pseudobulbs are available, there are more nutrients available for the new growth.
It can be concluded that we do not remove old pseudobulbs from orchids because:
-orchids need nutrients from old pseudobulbs for new growth
-orchids can flower more than once from old pseudobulbs
-orchids will flower better, if there will be additional nutrients available from old pseudobulbs
-there is a chance that an orchid may not survive, if too many old pseudobulbs are removed, leaving an orchid with not enough nutrients to grow or start a new growth
-a pseudobulb may only look like it is dead, but in reality it is only resting, dropping all its leafs during this period
-during period of rest an orchid can drop its leafs, leaving only pseudobulbs looking like dead sticks. There are several orchids that only flower on pseudobubs with no leafs on
Old pseudobulbs are being removed only:
-if they rot
-if they have any diseases that could be passed on the healthy part of the plant
-if they are completely dry and there is maybe only a hollow shell, what is left from them
-if old pseudobulbs will be used for dividing plants, for propagation (to be successful at least three pseudobulbs are needed on each division)
Pseudobulbs are removed with a clean knife or scissors (preferably sterilized to prevent disease transmission). They have to be cut apart on the connecting axis, closer to the older pseudobulb.
From my experience, old pseudobulbs can still have surprisingly large amounts of nutrients in store, so they can be successfully used for propagation.
