Pleione humilis - damaged pseudobulb

[Ebo]

Hello,

I am cultivating several different Pleione species for about two decades now and obtained P. humilis 2 years ago. The pseudobulbs were intact on arrival but developed cracks at the end of the growing period. Since I was considering that I might have kept them to wet I tried to keep them relatively dry last year. However, the bulbs burst open again a few weeks before the leaves dropped.

I already found a very similar topic under: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=11192.0

and was wondering if there are any new insights since 2013? Is this a very common thing that happens especially to P. humilis? Is it actually a fungal infection or just the wrong growing conditions? And is there a way to cure the plants besides cutting the cracks out (if it works - I did not try yet).

Please excuse any mistakes. I am not a native speaker.

Thank you,
Ebo

[Ali Baba]

It looks like the sort of thing that might happen if the plant got a little too dry when the pseudobulbs were forming, and then was watered heavily causing the pseudobulb to split (a bit like tomatoes will split if watered irregularly when ripening. There doesn't look to be any infection there, however I suppose the split could be a site for secondary infection

[Ebo]

That is exactly what I was thinking of too. However, since I kept them extra dry this year and all of the other Pleione bulbs except those from P. humilis seem to be okay I am somehow alerted.

I have now isolated the small bulbils and will plant them separately. While the small bulbils seem to be fine all of the large and intermediate bulbs have this sort of damage.

And most important today: I wish everybody a great 2020 :-)

Best regards,
Ebo