Sad Cattleya Walkeriana

[viridian-skies]

Hello all. I was just "gifted" a struggling cattleya walkeriana. It has 4 bulbs and 2 firm roots, one of which is growing a small green tip.

It had been growing in lava rock and brick chunks in a plastic pot with lots of drainage. She watered it 2-3 times a week, and I'm thinking this may have been too much. I have never seen roots look like this in chunky porous media so I did some reading. Seems like walkeriana is extremely intolerant of wet roots and high humidity. Is this accurate? I'm going to clean it up, mount it onto some cork without any other media, make sure it's completely dry in between watering, and keep it warm. Maybe treat it with some seaweed. My humidity is very average (40-50%) but may drop a bit lower in the summer. We have warm, dry ones here. Does this sound like a reasonable plan?

[SouthPark]

I don't grow walkeriana, but I think it will be beneficial to show a good resolution photo of what the roots look like. And show what the plant looks like as well.

At the moment, there appears to be no detail of your growing conditions.

Lava rock and brick chunks and good draining pot sounds good to me.

The main golden rules I follow for catt type orchid growing are: maintain good air circulation/air-movement around the whole plant and through media (avoid still-air growing environment), good comfortable temperature, and good comfortable lighting for the orchid.

I wouldn't be afraid to water walkeriana every single morning in my part of the world. But I do occasionally allow for a dry out of my lava rock/scoria ----- maybe once a week, or once every couple of weeks. This is just to cut down on things growing on the roots and inside the pot. In general, I have no issue with putting lots of water into the lava rock/scoria media - as long as good air-circulation and fresh air movement is maintained around the whole plant - leaves, roots, media and all.

If I had your walkeriana - even if I didn't see photos, my own procedure would be to unpot - remove any dead roots or mushy roots. All the roots to dry out. And once I see that they're dry, pot into a clean (sanitised) opaque plastic pot having lots of good size drainage holes down at the bottom of it, and I would use 10 to 20 mm average diameter fresh scoria - probably pretty much what your pot had already - I assume. Then ensure that the pot sits on top of something (such as a drain grate, or a grill etc) so that water is allowed to drain freely out of the pot. Then put the pot in a place with comfortable temperature (for the orchid), decent lighting conditions, and avoid still-air environment.

If you have good air-movement through the media and roots - the walkeriana is not going to have any problems.

[viridian-skies]

I'll take some photos when I'm home and post them. I have 2 fans in my grow room and temperatures are 25-26 C during the day and about 17-18 C at night. High light is readily available under T5's. I've posted my humidity levels previously. I grow several other cattleyas and all are doing well. One is a mounted schilleriana and the others are potted hybrids in large orchiata + charcoal.

I've read that the walkerianas are extremely intolerant of wet roots than most other catts and one of the reasons I posted was to see if others have found this to be the case from first hand experience.

[SouthPark]

Thanks V.S. I assume the walkeriana got into a bad shape not under your care, but during the care of the previous owner. I'm confident that this plant should recover under your care.

---------- Post added at 09:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:22 AM ----------

In a google search, it will be easy to find this set of words - not all of it to be taken as rules.

- from google:
"Watering will be abundant during growth and greatly reduced in winter, when the pseudobulbs reach maturity. After watering, the compost must dry quickly. It will therefore be necessary to have a very well drained substrate. Under no circumstances should this orchid be watered until the roots have completely dried."

I wouldn't worry about the part about 'under no circumstances should this orchid be watered until the roots have completely dried'. While applying that procedure certainly will likely lead to good results, we know in advance that nothing bad is going to happen to a walkeriana with wet roots most of the time - as long as we follow the golden rules of orchid growing - good air movement through media and roots; good temperature; good lighting; adequate water intake (so scheduling of watering - an appropriate schedule).

[viridian-skies]

Under no circumstances should this orchid be watered until the roots have completely dried.

This is helpful! Thanks!

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by viridian-skies

Under no circumstances should this orchid be watered until the roots have completely dried.

This is helpful! Thanks!

Apologies V.S. ..... I was still editing my post earlier. I hadn't finished editing it. I believe that if you just take care of the walkeriana in the way you do with your other catts ------- no problem. There will be no problem.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Any culture info that says, NEVER do X, makes me laugh...all of these plants grow in the wild somewhere...or used to....and so nature does not follow a lot of NEVER type of rules

Just aim for the middle and hope you end up within the plant’s tolerances.

I think a mount will be very helpful for this plant as it allows for the lost air and the most drying

[SouthPark]

Totally agree DC. In nature, if it rains one day, then nobody is going to say not allowed to rain again until the roots dry out. Well, I guess somebody can say it. But will nature listen? (answer - no).

[DirtyCoconuts]

I am ALWAYS tell her what to do....she always listens but very very rarely cooperates lol