Bent/broken leaves on Cattleyas

[OrchidThief79]

A couple of my Cattleya-type plants have growths where the leaf has bent at the place where the leaf meets the pseudobulb (axil?). Some I bought that way and others have flopped over under my care. It seems to happen more often on plants with skinny pseudobulbs. It isn't just old leaves either. Some are fairly new. The leaves don't completely fall off. They just hang there by a thread. The leaves themselves look healthy. The tissue at the place it bends sometimes turns brown.
My questions are: 1) why does this happen on seemingly healthy plants? 2) after the leaf has gone floppy is it still useful to the plant or can I cut it off? I find it unsightly. Thanks.

[tucker85]

Weak psuedobulbs or leaves can sometimes just be a flaw created through the process of cross breeding. I have noticed that species seldom have new growths that are too weak to stand up on their own but some hybrids will do that. I have actually thrown out a couple of plants that could seldom hold up their new growth. If the leaves are still green they could be contributing to the plants health but if you want to cut them off I'm sure that would be fine also. Good luck.

[Strider 60]

I'm new here and more than likely have alot to learn but are you fertilizing weekly, weakly? If so I always allow mine to drop off naturaly, unsightly maybe but they might be useful to the plant untill they do drop off Hope I helped

[pacomartini]

i just bought one with a floppy leaf and jst decided to snip it offat the top of the pseudobulb...just gonna see what happens...the psuedo's at the lead look great ans i had more than 5 so ifigure it can handle the loss of a leaf

[Orchid126]

I like Dyna-Grow Protekt for weak leaves. It gives them more vigor.