We got the psychopsis from Zack at Steven's work because he was moving and downsizing. We were really excited about it because they are really cool looking. It was planted in a 6" basket in sphagnum. We should have looked it up to see what type of growing conditions it likes in the beginning, but we didn't. We treated it like all the other orchids, watering it when it dried out (which took forever in the moss) and fertilizing it weekly. It made a couple of really nice new growths, but after a while one of them rotted off from the base. It started making new growths again this spring, and we finally got around to looking it up and realizing that it definitely did not want to be planted in moss. It wants to dry out fairly quickly between waterings. Before the new growths were mature we repotted it into the same basket but with a standard bark mix. It did not enjoy this experience. First both the new growths it was making rotted off, then the leaves started turning yellow and dying one by one. This is one of the only plants we have ever killed, and it was so disappointing. We did a lot of research and found out that the new growths are very susceptible to rot if ANY water gets down in them, so you have to be extremely careful when watering. The psychopsis in general are also known to sulk after repotting.
We decided the other day to try it again. We really like the flowers so we bought another one at the Redland Orchid Festival 2013. The grower told us to treat it like any Oncidium and not to get water in the new growths at all. So we are trying again; better prepared this time, and crossing our fingers!
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