roots galore and question about cattleya sheaths

[Bill U.]

Hi everyone! I wanted to show exactly how nuts my Pot. Burana Beauty 'Burana' is going right now with the amount of new roots that it is putting out on all of the newest leads.

I bought it in May from Hausermanns with 2 pseudobulbs in bloom. Since June it has put out 4 new leads that are developing a ton. I am curious as to if/when I could see a sheath forming on the newer leads. Oh, and I did have to repot it after it was done flowering in May becwuse it had several pbs growing over the side of the pot, so I put it the next size up and hage treated it 2 times with Maxicrop seaweed extract.

Please look at the pictures and comment and let me know if I just have to be more patient with sheaths to form!

There are 2 pictures of new roots, a picture of 2 of the newer psbs next to the older ones, and one of a topmviewmof what you can see into the "crotch" of the leaves on the new psbs.

[Brooke]

Congrats on the healthy looking plant and the beautiful new roots.

Your fourth picture will not produce a sheath now. Sheaths form when the new leaves are almost finished growing. The sheath would appear almost like a third leaf forming.

Brooke

[My Green Pets]

The plant looks to be thriving, way to grow!

I've read lots of posts where people were having issues getting their bloom-sized plants to actually flower, and the answer seems to consistently be light, light, light...

[Bill U.]

I have read the same thing about lighting and I am curious if it needs more right now it is in a western window, so it gets some direct sun... should I have it under a light as well? What do you think?

[tucker85]

Like, Brooke said, the sheaths will form at the same time as the leaves grow out. Many cattleyas don't form sheaths on every pseudo-bulb. I would just be patient. Pot. Burana Beauty has a reputation for being easy to bloom. When it's the right time of year, I'm sure it will bloom for you. That's a very healthy looking orchid.

[Bill U.]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts! I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens! Maybe it may nit bloom this round due to the repotting or just plain testing my patience :P haha

[james mickelso]

Brooke is right. And as Tucker said, not every pbulb blooms. In my experience with Potinaras the pbulbs which grow in early spring bloom while the pbulbs which grow in the fall don't. Burana Beauty likes lots of light. That western window will work well. In winter a southern window would be even better. Just adjust closer or further away depending on your latitude. As long as it is warm and bright, and the roots are growing you can fertilize it. But if it stops growing or slows down, curtail the fertilizer. This is a nice plant. It is winter so don't over water this. If it is not visibly growing it doesn't need much water. Here in SoCal at the beach I water my catts every ten days or so depending on the weather. I don't keep them wet at all. Those new growths will produce pbulbs in spring which will flower. An old orchid grower I knew long ago told me a little secret about increasing the number of buds which will grow from back bulbs. The rizomes between the old back bulbs have latent buds that can be encouraged to spraot by taking an exacto knife or razor blade and cutting halfway through the rizome. This stimulates the pbulb to grow the latent buds instead of furnishing energy to the pbulbs forward of them. I've used it successfully. This spring I'll post a demo of the technique. In bonsai this is how you can air layer an entire branch.

[LadySoren]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

Brooke is right. And as Tucker said, not every pbulb blooms. In my experience with Potinaras the pbulbs which grow in early spring bloom while the pbulbs which grow in the fall don't. Burana Beauty likes lots of light. That western window will work well. In winter a southern window would be even better. Just adjust closer or further away depending on your latitude. As long as it is warm and bright, and the roots are growing you can fertilize it. But if it stops growing or slows down, curtail the fertilizer. This is a nice plant. It is winter so don't over water this. If it is not visibly growing it doesn't need much water. Here in SoCal at the beach I water my catts every ten days or so depending on the weather. I don't keep them wet at all. Those new growths will produce pbulbs in spring which will flower. An old orchid grower I knew long ago told me a little secret about increasing the number of buds which will grow from back bulbs. The rizomes between the old back bulbs have latent buds that can be encouraged to spraot by taking an exacto knife or razor blade and cutting halfway through the rizome. This stimulates the pbulb to grow the latent buds instead of furnishing energy to the pbulbs forward of them. I've used it successfully. This spring I'll post a demo of the technique. In bonsai this is how you can air layer an entire branch.

I don't understand. Buds = flower buds? And you are saying that if you cut cleanly halfway through the rhizome between an old bulb and the new ones, (not dividing anybody) an old bulb will flower? Or bud=pbulb? So it will encourage new bulbs from other places. I fell stupid for asking.
Also, any particular time to do this? Like when you see new root growth, etc. or do it any time?

[james mickelso]

The new pbulbs growing now won't flower because they are growing in the fall.

From these new pbulbs growth buds will form at the base of the pbulbs in spring and these will flower in August or Sept.
You can make the new pbulbs produce new growth buds in a couple months by keeping these new pbulbs warm with lots of light.
The oldest pbulbs on this plant may be able to be forced to send out latent growth buds by cleanly cutting the rizome halfway through. This forces the energy (starches and water) to stay in the pbulb and signal the pbulb to push those latent growth buds into growing. By cutting halfway through the rizome the flow of energy keeps going to the forward growths but is restricted which somehow tells the old pbulb that to survive it has to produce new growth and pushes the latent growth buds out. I don't know how it does this chemically or biologically but I've used it successfully to force new growth buds out of very old pbulbs.

The new pbulbs now growing don't usually produce flowers but are used for storage of food for the growth in spring which will send out flowers. Flowers take a lot of energy to produce and so this is the mechanism by which the plant stores energy to produce flowers. It's like we store fat up in fall for next year.

And for everyone reading this thread.....there are "NO" dumb questions. It is how we all learn.

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Amazing healthy plant! Great growing!