Yesterday evening passing through the weekend night market just to look around (and ya shall find), I was glad to see my old friend, the orchid vendor, again. He hasn’t been showing up kind of late and look what he’s got for me this time: an industrial-size cattleya! It has several spent blooms – he said the flower is red - one pregnant “cane” with “pouch”, one new shoot and a bunch of big sturdy “canes” ( how do you call them bulbs with leaf, or leaves with bulb?) Also lots of new eyes (baby bulbs?) In short a healthy, vigorous-looking plant. However, after bringing it home, I start to worry, mostly about the potting media. It feels like coconut husks densely packed, with the top surface getting mushy and patchy in green moss. Oh yeah, the pot is earthen-ware with holes all round but only a timid small root or two poking out here and there… The whole thing weighs a ton!
My first and only experience with cattlleyas has been the quick demise of one, also purchased from the same vendor (he’s the one who’s got me into this orchid “world”). Gorgeous corsage-size white and purple flower – which made my bathroom look and smell like the Ritz-Carlton for two brief weeks - dark thick leaves with healththy root system clinging tightly onto spanking new charcoal potting media (sorry for sounding like a commercial!) And yet, despite the love that I professed, I managed to kill it after the bloom was done with. I left a new cane with sheath fried to a crisp in the sun, then caused root rot by putting the original pot inside a clay pot (for re-decorating purpose, to cheer up the bathroom now looking forlorn), finally when things appeared to go down hill I repotted and while I was at it, divided the plant as well. Needless to say, it died a painful death.
What I remember was that that plant had roots trailing down from the bottom of its plastic pot. Whereas this new plant has almost none sticking out. I poked my fingers through the bottom holes of the pot and could feel/see same media: coco husks, with not much ventilation.
Another point of concerns is several smaller (ie younger) leaves have yellowing going toward blackburnt tips. Is this the result of being left in the sun and the young uns couldn’t take it?
What should I do at this point? The pregnant cane has a flower bud inside the pouch, the new shoot is growing, plus all the mature leaves/bulbs look okay at the moment, they all sport the faded green color that says they have been getting plenty of sun…. I don’t want to make the same fatal mistake again and yet, I’m fighting the urge of wanting to “check and make sure that everything’s okay?” (ie the kiss of death for orchids.) I’m imagining that the roots are suffocating/rotting, being buried down there in that big vat of a pot, while everything looks hunky-dory on the surface. I need a quick prescription from the doctor(s) in the house , please!
Health diagnosis needed for newly purchased cattleya
Threaded Mode
