Again.....for the newbies here

[james mickelso]

Or for those who have problem cats. Oops....that's supposed to read catts as in cattleyas. I have a catt that grows out in all directions. That's the way it came to me and I took two years to get some roots on it. But it still grew in all directions so it's time to repot it. When I took it out of the pot I noticed it was planted vertically with three of the pbulbs planted much deeper than the others. It needed a smaller pot but that would have been an issue too as then I would have had to cut it into two smaller pieces. So here is what I did. I cleaned it up, using tweezers to get all of the old sheath material off it,take out all the old bark, and cut off all of the soft old roots that weren't contributing to the orchid. And to solve the vertical issue I planted it horizontally. As I cleaned it I found that each pbulb had at least one but mostly two potential buds hiding at the base of each one. There are two well developed buds growing now and seven potential buds that if I can get them to all grow will make this a very nice bloomer in two years or so. Here are the pics of what I did. I hope this will help some of you. Also in the pic of the pot you might notice that I put in the bottom both broken clay pottery shards and Styrofoam to make the pot shallower. If you put nothing but media in it the bottom portion will stay wet and most likely rot the roots. So put in something inorganic that will take up room in the bottom of the pot. Ok I think I'm finished.

[Nanook 2010]

If your cat is growing horizontally vs vertically you need to increase light exposure

[james mickelso]

Heheheheheh

[SJF]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

Or for those who have problem cats. Oops....that's supposed to read catts as in cattleyas. I have a catt that grows out in all directions. That's the way it came to me and I took two years to get some roots on it. But it still grew in all directions so it's time to repot it. When I took it out of the pot I noticed it was planted vertically with three of the pbulbs planted much deeper than the others. It needed a smaller pot but that would have been an issue too as then I would have had to cut it into two smaller pieces. So here is what I did. I cleaned it up, using tweezers to get all of the old sheath material off it,take out all the old bark, and cut off all of the soft old roots that weren't contributing to the orchid. And to solve the vertical issue I planted it horizontally. As I cleaned it I found that each pbulb had at least one but mostly two potential buds hiding at the base of each one. There are two well developed buds growing now and seven potential buds that if I can get them to all grow will make this a very nice bloomer in two years or so. Here are the pics of what I did. I hope this will help some of you. Also in the pic of the pot you might notice that I put in the bottom both broken clay pottery shards and Styrofoam to make the pot shallower. If you put nothing but media in it the bottom portion will stay wet and most likely rot the roots. So put in something inorganic that will take up room in the bottom of the pot. Ok I think I'm finished.

How is this one doing now?

Thanks for the great tutorial!
~SJF

[james mickelso]

Don't know. I'll have to go look through them all and see. Just got off work and it's getting dark. I'll look tomorrow. Probably doing well. Those buds should be about to flower.

[SJF]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

Don't know. I'll have to go look through them all and see. Just got off work and it's getting dark. I'll look tomorrow. Probably doing well. Those buds should be about to flower.

Thanks

[james mickelso]

OK I found it. Here's what it's doing now. Struggling as usual. The new pbulbs are just now throwing roots. The roots of the older pbulbs weren't in good condition and it might have been better to leave the whole thing as it was until the new pbulbs threw roots. When you repot an orchid that doesn't have a good root system to start with, sometimes it's better to leave it until the new growth has roots of it's own. But it will really take off next season. I should get two buds on both of the new growths here. It's up high for max light which takes a toll on the older pbulbs which are old enough to have started losing there photosynthesizing ability. So until about a month ago when the new growth started growing roots, these older pbulbs were supporting the new growth alone. The supporting flows of energy from the older pbulbs is diminishing quickly now and the new roots are just now becoming able to support the new growth. I'll probably show it again as an update next season if I keep my collection that long. I might be moving. Opps!!! I almost forgot to post the picks.