Well, the leafless old p/bulbs are usually leafless becasue they've lost
their roots (One of those things people tell you when they tell you to read
your plants. Leafless p/bulbs = no roots). Is that a hard and fast rule?
Heck if I know. But I know its true for my plants. Once they've lost their
leaves the roots are shot. At my house.

That aside, the leafless/rootless old p/bulbs still photosynthesize and also
store nutrients that support the new developing bulb. I think Wang did
research on this and it was something like 20% of the carbon present in the
new p/bulb came from the leafless old back p/bulbs.

So.

I use the same rule of thumb as with Cattleyas. 3 back bulbs to support the
new emerging one.

If the resultant plant doesn't fit in your pot its OK to submerge the oldest
one deeper in the medium.

If that doesn't work, cut away the rootless old bulb and make the best of a
bad situation. I mean, face it. Sometimes you gotta make a hard decision.
What can you do? I wouldn't pot up single p/bulbs, given a choice. But
hey, sometimes you are left with that choice, and if that's where you are
then there you be.

A tip for the futu use an inverted net pot in the center of a huge plant
so it dries out and gets air at the same rate as the rest of the plant.

K Barrett

"Alison" wrote in message
om...
Hi,
I have a really big brassia that is growing over the edge of the pot,
but I don't want to go up another pot size because it's already huge,
& it has got hard to tell whether it needs watering, because I can't
tell if it's still wet in the middle. The older bulbs have lost their
leaves, so I wondered if I can cut them off, & move the plant back in
the pot to give the new shoots room. I don't want to wreck it. Is it
safe to just hack off the old leafless bulbs? Where exactly should I
cut? Where the newer bulb comes out? Will the old bulbs get new
growth or are they "done"? I know about sterilizing the knife or
scissors, & dusting with cinnamon... just wondering if anyone had any
good advice on how to do this as I have never had to divide one
before.
Thanks!

Alison