Oncidium Sherry Baby

Oncidium Sherry Baby care

The Chocolate scented Orchid!!!!

Sherry Baby Red Fantasy

Sherry Baby Sweet Fragrance

	3 main care tips are the same as a phalaenopsis or moth orchid 1. fresh potting mix (less than 2 years old) 2. correct amount of light 3. watering and fertilizer
Pseudobulb Wrinkled Pseudobulb	Watering and Fertilizer: Use a wooden stick to see if your orchid needs watering (I use a shish kabob stick). This is an easy way to tell when you are just starting out. Insert the stick into the potting media, count to 5, remove the stick. If the stick is wet, you don't need to water. If it's dry you do. Water this orchid more in the summer and less in the winter, maybe every 5-7 days in the spring and summer and 7-10 days in the late fall and winter. Fertilize with a 20-20-20 type fertilizer or you can use bloom food and grow food for phals (that's what I use) weakly weekly. Water your orchid first then fertilize. If the Pseudobulbs (egg shaped pods at the bottom of the plant) become wrinkly then you need to water more often, if the leaves turn yellow you are watering too much. You will get to know the weight of the orchid and know if it is dry or wet. I know that sounds crazy but it's true.
	Light: Oncidium Sherry Baby needs more light than a phal orchid. In the winter place them in a South window out of direct sunlight (I use sheer curtains). In the spring and summer place it in an East or West window out of direct sunlight. If the leaves get black patches on them, that is sunburn they are getting too much sun. They do get small black spots on them, that's normal and not sunburn.
	Bugs: for scale or mealy bug or spider mites I use bayer 3 in one for trees, shrubs, and roses. 3Oz per gallon. If infected treat once a week for 4 weeks. If not you can treat it once a month just to make sure you don't get bugs. Some people use insecticidal soap or neem oil, they are more organic but may not cure your bug problem.
potting mixture Sherry Baby with lots of air roots and pseudobulbs, perfectly happy :)	Repotting: These orchids should be repotted every two years. Use the same potting mix as you would for mini-phals (small bark chips, sphagnum moss, and pearlite). Do not repot this or any orchid while it is blooming, or your blooms will die. Repot once blooming is finished. These orchids like to be underpotted. If the bark mixure is fine don't repot until the pseudobulbs are growing out of the pot.   I know this is counter intuitive. Especially if you are used to other houseplants where you want lots of room in the pot for the roots to grow and therefore the plant will grow bigger. The exact opposite is true for orchids. The plants will grow bigger and give you more blooms the more crowded the pot. If you put it in a bigger pot the roots will rot and your orchid can die.
	When the flowers are finished cut the flower stem. If this plant is taken care of you can get it to bloom twice a year or more. New spikes come out of the newly matured pseudobulb.
new flower spike	Reblooming: if you are having trouble getting your sherry baby to rebloom if you lower the night temperature by 15 degrees for a few weeks it should induce blooming. My friend kept giving hers bloom food after hers was finished blooming and another pseudobulb sent out two spikes so this may be a good idea too.