Cycnodes TLDC purple frilled lizard

[Paola]

Hy guys, I have a huge problem with my seedling of cyco frilled lizard. First of all, when I bought it in spring, I had not realized ot was so young and I think I have watwred it too soon 'cause it stopped growing. This is the same size when I unwrapped it from the box. Is too late? Is there any hope to save it after dormancy? I think it is entering into it in these days, but the p/s bulb is so small!! It was in S/H in summer and earlyearlybut autumn but there is no water
in the vase since the middle of October

[fishmom]

That is pretty tiny to be entering a real dormancy. If it were mine, I would probably keep giving it tiny amounts of water around the edges , even if it really goes dormant. That small p-bulb doesn't have much in the way of resources to carry it through a dormancy.


I'm curious why you stopped watering in October. My catasetinae were still growing vigorously at that time in California--also a Mediterranean climate.

[Paola]

Thanks for your reply. I stopped because I saw there was water in abundance in the reservoire. It never disappeared as if the plant did not receive it. Roots were fine but tiny. In fact the plant seems still

[isurus79]

Doesn't look too good to me. is the new growth still hard or has it rotted below the leaves?

[Paola]

It's hard, but something not good is surely going on, just see the leaves!

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Paola

It's hard, but something not good is surely going on, just see the leaves!

I would stop watering and keep in a humid place until the new growth sprouts. Hopefully that back bulb can support the plant through winter. This is a great example of why early watering hurts the plant. However, these kinds of learning experiences create a better grower!

[Paola]

Thanks! In fact I have messed it up with this orchid. I have other catas and cycos and their ok, plumped and awesome. This was too small for me and I have mistaken in seeing the roots, for sure. Finger crossed. I' ll keep you informed if it gets through winter! Bye, bye

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Paola

Thanks! In fact I have messed it up with this orchid. I have other catas and cycos and their ok, plumped and awesome. This was too small for me and I have mistaken in seeing the roots, for sure. Finger crossed. I' ll keep you informed if it gets through winter! Bye, bye

🤞

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Paola

Hy guys, I have a huge problem with my seedling of cyco frilled lizard. First of all, when I bought it in spring, I had not realized ot was so young and I think I have watered it too soon 'cause it stopped growing. This is the same size when I unwrapped it from the box. Is too late? Is there any hope to save it after dormancy?

There's always hope - but depends on what condition the plant is in at this moment.

The first thing to do is to inspect the roots to see what's happening underneath the media.

If possible, take some nice big clear photos of the roots - not only the new roots, but also old roots if there are any.

What is the temperature range that your orchid was recently growing in? What minimum temperature?

What is the growing environment for this orchid? Indoor or outdoor ...... and is this plant being provided suitable growing temperature and light levels?

Does it grow in a place with good air-movement?

And - is it getting attacked by anything ----- eg. spider mites?

Originally Posted by Paola

I think I have watered it too soon 'cause it stopped growing.

One thing here is - don't jump to conclusions about early watering. That might have nothing to do with this issue.

I did testing this season with all of my Catasetinae plants that came out of dormancy (fdk, mo, monn, clo). Not a single one of them had issues - small and large. I did light watering of the brand new roots, and lightly wetted the surrounding media. No issues at all. I'm going to do the same testing next growing season too. And the season after that. I am doing these tests as I don't believe that water is going to harm these plants if they are provided suitable conditions for growing - which includes avoiding problematic conditions in the media and among the roots when watering. Conditions that cause water stagnation, oxygen starvation leading to rot under the media surface and plant health issues.

The tests I did were not about needing to water early. It was to find out if watering the brand new roots early did anything bad to the plant, or make the roots and the plants stop growing. My findings from those tests are - no issues encountered.

It makes sense - as we don't believe that a chance rain-shower or chance rain-showers is going to wipe out lots of Catasetinae orchids coming out of dormancy in the wild, right?

And - aside from that - regardless of whether brand new young roots are able to absorb water or not ----- we don't expect water to stunt their growth or kill them ...... since after-all ----- they are roots. One would expect that they can tolerate having some water on them - regardless of whether they're developed enough to absorb water or not.

The testing indicates that Catasetinae orchids coming out of dormancy can certainly tolerate water on brand new roots when provided suitable conditions. The results weren't surprising at all, as they were what I expected.

So - to me - the focus will be to understand the mechanisms behind issues faced by others that 'water early' - such as - is their media water logged? Is the temperature of their roots too cold? Is there not enough aeration to new and old roots? etc.

In order to learn more about issues for cases where other growers do 'early watering' - it will be necessary to gather as much details as possible about the growing conditions - such as media being used, method of growing, temperature (ambient temperature as well as roots temperature in the media). Also - growing in still air environment? Or growing in an environment with good air flow to the plants and to the roots and media? Also - lighting levels and how much light --- and duration of light exposure per day - roughly.

And - inspect the leaves to see if there's any signs of mite damage etc.

[Paola]

Hi, since November it has been kept indoor in my bathroom with a good but not high level of light. It receives sun from morning till let'say 3 p.m. the night temps without heating is about 12-15°C, but during nights like these we keep the heating on and temps get 22°C. I always put a wet cloth on the heating since I do not have a humidifier and the plant is not near it of course. The othe catas are outside in a little wooden house in our garden and they're perfectly comfortable, well protected with some TNT. I took the little one inside because it seemed to me not to able to stand the night temps being so tiny.