pseduo bulbs shrinking/withering - advice

[SamandAnne]

I thought others might be interested to know how this turned out and the process the orchid went through...as of now it is repotted and looking good! There is a new leaf and roots have continued to come back. Here's what happened:

We bought a Cattleya SLC Best Friend Cleopatra at an orchid show in 2009 (photo #1). We had it in a west-facing window in the spring. Instead of putting it outside in the summertime, which we heard was beneficial, we put it in a east-facing window in the middle of the summer. We think this was too sudden a change. The plant had burn on the stem, dimpled leaves, and the pseudobulbs shrunk significantly (photo #2). When removed from the pot, there were many roots ruined from dryness, which we cut off (photo #3). We put the plant with all 6 stems and one new growth into water culture. At first, we changed the water every week; lately it is changed closer to every two weeks, with 1/2 strength orchid fertilizer and root growth hormone. The next photo (photo #4) shows it after a couple months in water culture, with new root growth. However, it also lost the new stem growth by this point.

After about 9 months of water culture, it seems that the old roots that were left from BEFORE the water culture did not survive, but the NEW roots grown entirely in water culture have. As a result, we cut off the oldest two stems, which had no remaining good roots. We also trimmed off a few old roots that were no longer viable. There was now new root growth again on the youngest stems, four stems left, and another new stem growth - the new growth is on top left in photos (photo #5 & #6). At that point, the remaining leaves and pseudobulbs looked much better than when they first entered water culture after the sun damage.

We let the cattleya stay in water a couple more months until the small new growth that was starting got a little taller (photo #7) The smaller leaf/stem on the left is the new growth that was just a nub in the previous photos. We just repotted it and the roots, leaves, and stems are looking much better than when it first entered the water culture (photo #8). We will be watering it with half strength orchid fertilizer, root growth hormone, and superthrive.

In case anyone else is interested in water culture or has a damaged orchid, we thought this might be interesting! We'll see how it adjusts to being repotted in bark after being in water for almost a year.

Thanks to the advice we received on this forum and also to the people who helped us from the Western PA Orchid Society!