Advice on newly aquired Cattleya hybrid

[cluelessmidwesterner]

Yesterday at Lowes I acquired the last Better-gro bag orchid they had which had been sitting un-watered on the shelf since God was a boy. It is a Hausermann's Gala x Hausermann's Jade 'Lake View' and a very sad little thing it is. One small and two medium sized pseudo-bulbs and leaves that was also very wrinkled. (Photos later)

I soaked the crappy spent medium off last night and let it soak for a few hours after removing a good chunk of the dead roots. It does have maybe four half way viable roots (the velum firm at least). I let it dry over night and soaked it for a two hours again today. At the moment its sitting in a plastic cone pot with damp sphagnum on the bottom half and some poked around the top of the roots on a high shelf next to my downstairs humidifier.

I would like to put it into semi-hydro but without new root growth that I think would be a fool hardy. So my question is this. Should I leave it in the damp moss for humidity/hydration or soak/dry bare rooted until I see root growth? If I bare root soak how long each day/number of days a week? Or should I just bite the bullet and risk it straight away in s/h?

[estación seca]

Gardener's decisions should be based on understanding plant's natural growth cycles.

1 Don't buy sick plants until you're an expert.

2 Don't move sick plants to S/H. It's a strain on even a healthy plant. Cattleyas usually take longer to adapt to S/H than most other orchids so this goes double for sick Cattleyas.

3 Winter is generally the worst time to repot Cattleyas, especially sick ones.

4 Many Cattleyas have only brief periods of root growth. The time to repot them is just as root growth starts. For a sick Catt in winter, this might be several months from now.

5 You can't tell dead roots from living ones with certainty. Especially with sick plants that won't root for a while, don't risk cutting off the few living roots the plant has.

6 The old growth likely will never get better. With proper care the new growth will be healthy.

Your task now is to keep this plant alive until it grows new roots. It will probably wait for warm weather to do so. You need to keep it in a humid, warm environment for now. Sitting on top of damp sphagnum may cause root rot. I would consider putting it intp a terrarium or large jar bare-root, with a glass of water in there to keep humidity high. Or just barely moist sphagnum.

[cluelessmidwesterner]

Ok going with the terrarium idea I am using an old Betta tank with a small terracotta pot full of damp moss. The Cattleya is sitting beware rooted in the tank. Top is covered by some press and seal to cover the top to keep the humidity around the plant.

I am assuming that I will have to soak the roots periodically and then allow it to dry before Placing it back into the tank. Is that correct?

[Dollythehun]

Proper method to Repot this rescue

[aliceinwl]

I don't know if this would help in your situation, but you could pot it up in coarse bark in a very small pot, like the clay one, and put that in the covered tank along with a cup of water?

I have one potted like this (but mine does have good roots so no humidity tent required). If I water it by letting the water run through it's dry again in 24 hours so I've been doing this daily. It's not pushing new roots yet, but the vegetative growth looks good and it's put out one new leaf.

Some of these are quite nice and the price is low, so I let myself make an impulse buy. If I can get it to pull through: great for the plant and me. If I can't save it: no big loss and I still will have learned a lot in the process. If it's green, there's hope :-)

[Merita]

My experience with the seedlings of Better Gro has been very good, I have more than 50 plants of them and also some have come almost without roots, in this case I plant them equal inside the bark, putting some stones that hold it and it goes forward in one month. These plants need more watering and moisten the substrate every time it looks dry, use the kelpmax is very good. I grow my cattleyas in the yard but you can keep the plant in a window with light and warmth, the seedlings are grateful and struggle to live. I enjoy these blooms more than the others because they are the fruit of my work. Greetings.

[Paul]

Personally, I'm a supporter of the "sphag n bag" ICU method. Should be able to find out more about that searching the forums.

[Merita]

I do not see that the situation is so difficult, many seedlings come like this and they manage to take root well. Having created the conditions, they react better than any adult plant. The moss I do not like to use it, it is a double-edged sword.

[cluelessmidwesterner]

This is an update on this Hausermann's Gala x Hausermann's Jade 'Lake View' rescue. As you can see I potted her up in Leca and had her in a covered small beta tank. The pseudo bulbs have plump up which is a shock if you look at the photos of it one month ago. I do have a question about the little growth at the base of the rhizome. Is that a new pbulb or wishful thinking on my part?

Another question would be, when I should transition this from the high humidity of the tank to the normal household humidity and more light?

[Leafmite]

Looks good!
I have a rescue Cattleya in a twenty-gallon tank. I will leave it there until I see some new roots beginning to grow. When there are roots, the orchid can begin taking up water to balance the loss of water to the air. My home is rather dry during the winter, though.