Cattleya roots - dead or alive?
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  #1  
Old 12-29-2015, 12:40 PM
ctgardener ctgardener is offline
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Cattleya roots - dead or alive?
Default Cattleya roots - dead or alive?

A new forum member and an orchid novice. I recently purchased a Cattleya from an online vendor. The orchid was blooming when I received it. The blooms lasted a couple of days. My question is related to the roots. Most of them seem dead. Attached is a pic. Are they dead? What should I do? Thanks!

(I apologize that the pic is posted sideways. Can't figure out how to right the pic.)
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Cattleya roots - dead or alive?-img_1173-jpg  
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  #2  
Old 12-29-2015, 12:48 PM
silken silken is offline
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Welcome to Orchid Board. It's a bit hard to tell from the picture if the roots are alive or dead. They appear white which often means they are alive. But if they feel firm ad not mushy or hollow, they will be alive. The roots are usually white when dry and turn green when wet, much like Phal roots do. I would soak the roots and see which ones plum up and turn green. They can be stained brownish from bark or other medias, and if firm, keep them. Remove any mushy or hollow ones. If you have some seaweed, I would soak them in that for an hour before re-potting. Repot in an open chunky media. I prefer straight medium bark for all my Catts, but it depends on your watering habits and growing conditions as to what will be best for you. Soak the bark first as it will be very dry and not hold much moisture when new. Catts should get good air to the roots and pots should have enough holes to provide very good drainage. They should completely dry out before watering except maybe in the very hottest days of summer, then water when almost dry.

Normally I would never re-pot a Catt (or most other orchids) until I see new root growth started. But with newly acquired ones, it is important to check the roots and get into an appropriate media and pot.

If it is unstable after potting, stake it so that it doesn't move around. This will help it get established much faster. Also don't over pot as it is hard to get the media evenly dried in the centre if the pot is much larger than the root ball and this causes root rot.
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Old 12-29-2015, 12:56 PM
ctgardener ctgardener is offline
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Cattleya roots - dead or alive?
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Thanks silken for the welcome and advice. I soaked the orchid to see what would happen to the roots. Only one puffed up. The rest did nothing. When it dries out most of the roots are hollow. It seems like I didn't buy a great specimen. Live and learn. I will repot the orchid as you instructed.
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Old 12-29-2015, 01:31 PM
silken silken is offline
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Cattleyas (and most orchids in general) are pretty hardy and will recover from some pretty bad shape. I strongly recommend finding some seaweed (kelp) as it really promotes root growth. My Catts respond to it the best of all my orchid types. You can usually find it at hydroponic shops or garden centres. I think in the U.S. some Home Depots have it but not here in Canada. Add it to the water as per instructions and soak before re-potting. Then use it for a few weeks or whenever you water the plant. If you use bark you could even soak the pot for 20 ins in it but make sure the media dries well before watering again. with so few roots, there will not be much taking up moisture in the pot. Keep the plant in a reasonably warm location to promote roots also.
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Old 12-29-2015, 02:19 PM
ctgardener ctgardener is offline
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Do you use seaweed for regular watering or just for orchids that are stressed?
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Old 12-29-2015, 02:35 PM
silken silken is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ctgardener View Post
Do you use seaweed for regular watering or just for orchids that are stressed?
I water all my orchids with it every month or so. But use it regularly for a few weeks on stressed ones. It shouldn't always be used as there are growth hormones in it. If my plant has tons of roots, I don't use it at all as sometimes it creates so much root growth, that I am re-potting to accommodate the large amount of roots! But it works very well for root challenged orchids.
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Old 12-29-2015, 02:56 PM
judith_arquette judith_arquette is offline
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I can testify both to the benefit of kelp additive and the hardiness of Catts. I pretty much kill any existing roots on every orchid I've ever gotten which has caused me to stop attempting to grow phals but I find Catts and oncidiums much more forgiving due to the stores they have in their pbulbs and since adding a kelp supplement they now all have healthy root systems again. You may or may not see new root growth until you get new pbulbs so don't worry too much if you don't see any progress right away
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