Cattleya purple pseudobulb

[soub1508]

I bought this cattleya around one month ago.It is growing fine and producing new shoots. today I noticed one side of a pseudobulb doesn't look normal ,purple colour but not soft but other half is normal green colour. Should I worry about this?

[rbarata]

The red side must be the one faced to the light source. That's normal, it's just pigmentation some plants have that protects them from light intensity (just like tanning in humans).

[SouthPark]

As rbarata mentions ------ some orchids development pigmentation ---- colours like reddish or purplish when exposed to light levels that are relatively high - such as direct sunlight.

Regarding the colour/pigmentation ------ the original poster could read through this document here ----- and focus on the 'carotenoids' part.

link

Also, from the photos, just inspect the leaves - to make sure they're all ok too ----- as in not getting attacked by mites or scale (like boisduval scale) etc. It might just be the lighting in the photograph ------ but just noticing the leaves having some whitish colour and a little rough and/or bumpy looking. It might be just fine.

[soub1508]

Thanks everyone for helping me out. I keep cattleya under direct sunlight in the morning and late afternoon so maybe it is getting too much light. We do have lots of spider mites in our area. I generally do not use Insecticide . Every morning and noon I spray water on leaves so that mites go away. Should I use Insecticide?

[SouthPark]

Most welcome soub.

It is ok to just keep spraying water onto leaves, and under the leaves too. That keeps the numbers relatively low, and under control. Insecticidal soap spray can help the water stick to the mites and/or the leaves a bit better.

Once sprayed, maintain nice gentle air-movement in the growing area - so that the leaves can dry relatively quickly - to avoid fungal issues.

For insects --- could use pyrethrum sprays, or for something more substantial and systematic ----- carbaryl spray, or imidacloprid. Imidacloprid is deadly to bees ----- and some places do not sell imidacloprid anymore.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Also, it is not getting enough water. All the leaves have slight wrinkling. A happy Cattleya alliance plant should have no wrinkling on the leaves.

Most mounted plants need watering every day, and more than once a day when the relative humidity is low. What are your day/night temperatures and relative humidity?

If you have spider mites in the environment pesticides will not help at all. The mites will come back from other plants. You will need to be vigilant and treat as soon as you see problems. I don't see evidence of mite attack on this plant. I'm not sure what caused the damage to the side of the pseudobulb opposite the pigmentation. It might have been mechanical damage or something taking a bite.

Just as effective as pesticides for mites is spraying the entire plant, including the upper and especially lower surfaces of leaves, with a solution of liquid dish detergent in water, 5ml per liter. This does not kill the eggs so it needs to be repeated every 4-6 days for 3 treatments.

[soub1508]

Thanks again! Our climate is hot and humid. Temperature is (77-93F on 07/10/20) Humidity varies from 60 to 95 percent throughout the year. Humidity is high from July to mid October ( 80-95 percent). As it is mounted on coco husk I give less water generally every alternative day cause I have fear of killing it due to overwatering.should I give it more water? I want to repot in charcoal lava rock media which is suitable for our climate but coco husk on which it is mounted is farm and hard so I am thinking wheather it is a good idea to repot now?

[estación seca]

On a mount plants need water every day, sometimes twice in hot weather. It isn't possible to overwater exposed roots so don't worry about that.

The time to repot is when the plant just begins new root growth.

[pokefan_nat]

It's good to know there was already a forum on this. I have the same problem. I was testing to see how much light to give my cattleyas because I bought a bloom plus light. I have it around 30ish inches away from my two plants and one of them definitely showed some change. I usually keep in on the high setting in the day and around 9 or 10 pm, I turn it to the low setting. I might keep it in between or just on the low setting for now but im glad its shown that I am hopefully giving it enough light. No burns from it because I keep a fan on just in case the light gets too hot.

[estación seca]

A fan allows growing Cattleyas in much higher light than otherwise. It carries off the heat formed when light strikes leaves, and the leaves stay at ambient temperature. I do this in the spring here in Arizona to give a lot of orchids early morning sun when temperatures are around 100-105 F / 38-41C.

Catts bloom fine with some purpling. They don't need to be heavily purple, nor heavily spotted with purple.