Is the watering new growth on Catasetum rule an urban legend?

[isurus79]

What I've learned after growing this group for somewhere between 15-20 years:

1. The issue of watering at the right time is complex, but a few things are straight forward: dry media until new roots are 4" long on adult plants is a near guaranteed formula for success with the commonly grown Catasetinae (Catasetum, Cycnoches, Mormodes, Clowesia) and their hybrids. Period. Watering early is risky and has mixed success, depending on a variety of factors.

2. Complex hybrids (like FDK) often don't obey the rules of dry roots in the same way as their non-hybrid cousins. Hybrid vigor in plants is real and readily observed across many many genera. This is why many people cut their teeth on complex hybrids and do well, only to branch out into species and have spectacular failures.

3. I've killed A LOT of Catasetinae by watering early in spring. I was growing this group before there was much information so I experimented a lot and killed a lot.

4. Second flushes of growths in summer seem to do well without obeying the dryness formula around the roots. Not sure why this is! Or maybe the roots don't do well on the second growth of the season, but the first growth of the season has put out so many new roots that the plant does just fine even with poor root growth on the second growth. I'm not entirely sure which is true!

---------- Post added at 10:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:02 PM ----------

Also, your new growths (as seen in photo 2) already look like they'll be smaller than your other growths. I'm curious to see how big they are by the time dormancy comes around.

[SouthPark]

KG - last growing season, my test also involved mormodia and clowsetum. No issues last growing season. I'll be testing them this season too.

[Keysguy]

isurus- Thank you for sharing your experiences.

A couple comments about them, if I may.
Your 4th point starts to hit at what I was really poking at. I've always followed the "rule" and had good success but this particular plant, in this particular growing season, under these particular conditions is doing something I've never seen which is to suddenly throw 2 new growths off of the oldest of the backbulbs after 3 months of full on daily watering. So I'm really just speculating as to why and what will become of them and what this might mean as it applies to the "rule"

Secondly- your last comment about the 2nd picture. That picture doesn't even show the primary current new growth, it shows the 2 new growths coming off the backbulbs. The primary new growth is off picture to the left which you can see in the first picture and that growth is already fatter and longer than last years. At least compared to last years growth on this particular division.

[Subrosa]

I don't follow the "x number of inches" rule, because I don't want to go digging around in the substrate and possibly damaging the new roots. I wait until the previous year's pseudobulb (s) significantly shrivels, and start watering then.

[WaterWitchin]

I still need to get a few of these Catasetum and give it a shot. Would have already done so, other than still saving my pennies for the ephemeral greenhouse.

Anyone grow these in semi-hydro? Mine would have to be. Or I could be a lab rat and join the speculation?

[DirtyCoconuts]

WW I have two in SH. One was a forced removal of a new growth, the other a tiny guy from a back build. Both are doing...okay...I am not sure it is a good culture for these guys but I am not even close to concluding that, these are not stellar candidates and there are things I would have done differently.

If/when you make the plunge I’ll tell you what I’ve learned

[fishmom]

I have an 'After Dark" seedling that has been in S/H since 2009. It had been a vigorous grower, divided several times, and is sporting two new growths this year. Sorry, it is the second picture--I can't seem to remove the first one, which is a different plant. This picture is from 2017.

[WaterWitchin]

Gracias fishmom and DC! Fishmom, what's the first one planted in?

[fishmom]

The first plant is in plastic inside a clay pot for balance. The container for the S/H plant is a storage bin from the dollar store, with holes drilled at the right height.

[WaterWitchin]

No, I mean medium... bark, SH, etc. First plant.