Poor cattleya

[Chris147]

I bought a pot. hawn charisma a few months ago, but about a month ago i noticed that the whole rhizome was black and the new growths had fallen off. I cut the only good looking pseudobulb off and put it in a glass of water(i heard it from another website) and now most of the pseudobulb is black and mushy. I cut all of the black mushy part and dipped it in a root growing hormone and planted it in spaghnum moss. Only time will tell if the psuedobulb will produce a new plant.

[marydaniellesantos]

Maybe it's retaining too much moisture? I cant say for sure, but that's my first guess. I hope it gets better!

[trdyl]

Hello Chris. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but that Cattleya is a goner. New growth only comes from the rhizome. Once that is lost the plant is dead. While the leaf is still green it does not have the capacity to produce a new rhizome.

[Eyebabe]

For future reference, cattleya pseudobulbs/rhizomes are more likely to root if they are more on the dry side as well.
But like trdyl said, the leaf will not throw off any roots.

[PaphMadMan]

I'm sorry I have to agree with trdyl and Eyebabe. Normally, new growth in a Cattleya comes only from the eyes on the rhizome near the base of a pseudobulb. You will get no new roots from the leaf or portion of the pseudobulb remaining.

However, there may be a one in a million chance of a keiki forming at the base of the leaf. A few species in the Cattleya alliance will very rarely form keikis at the base of a flower spike or where a spike would have started. VERY rarely, and I've never heard of it on a detached leaf. If you saw something written about propagating from pseudobulbs it was probably talking about Dendrobium canes, not Cattleya pseudobulbs.