Orchids often have a hard time surviving in their natural environment. Especially those that are exposed to great extremes, such as prolonged periods of drought, have developed some type of bulbs, which look like bulbs but are not, which are called pseudobulbs.

These pseudobulbs are storage organs for these orchids that allow them to survive longer periods of rest so that they can start growing successfully even before favorable conditions for growth arrive and the maturation of their growth with the change of seasons.

These pseudobulbs are very important to orchids and have a strong influence on their growth. These pseudobulbs are connected to each other, so it can be easily seen that the new growth is always larger than the old. It happens because the old pseudobulbs pass on their nutrients to the new growth and the more of these old pseudobulbs are available, the more nutrients are 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 bloom more than once from old pseudobulbs.

-orchids will flower better if additional nutrients are available from old pseudobulbs

-There is a chance that an orchid will not survive if too many old pseudobulbs are removed, leaving the orchid without enough nutrients to grow or start new growth.

-a pseudobulb may look like it’s just dead, but it’s actually just resting, shedding all of its leaves during this period

-During the resting period, an orchid may drop its leaves, leaving behind only pseudobulbs that look like dead sticks. There are several orchids that only flower on leafless pseudobubs in

Old pseudobulbs are only removed:

-if they rot

-if they have any disease that can be transmitted to the healthy part of the plant

-if they are completely dry and maybe only a hollow shell remains, what is left of them?

-if old pseudobulbs are to be used for dividing plants, for propagation (at least three pseudobulbs are needed for each division to be successful)

Pseudobulbs are removed with a clean knife or scissors (preferably sterilized to prevent disease transmission). They should be cut at the connecting axis, closer to the oldest pseudobulb.

In my experience, old pseudobulbs can still have surprisingly large amounts of stored nutrients, so they can be successfully used for propagation.