Catasetum Watering Consensus

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by isurus79

I suspect your plant would do just fine in full sun at your latitude, with the right acclimation. You could even put it on the east side of the house where it could get some afternoon shade.

In summer, I put my Catasetinae outside on west-facing shelves with 50% shade cloth just to take the "edge" off the blazing afternoon sun. They seem to totally love the high light. (Protected from the toasting noonday direct sun, but still really bright)

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Roberta

In summer, I put my Catasetinae outside on west-facing shelves with 50% shade cloth just to take the "edge" off the blazing afternoon sun. They seem to totally love the high light. (Protected from the toasting noonday direct sun, but still really bright)

I'd probably try almost full sun here if it didn't get so hot in the afternoon, at least during normal summers.

[mopwr]

Originally Posted by isurus79

I'd probably try almost full sun here if it didn't get so hot in the afternoon, at least during normal summers.

Yeah, today even though I'm in the northeast, we hit around 94 - I had a plant in the windowsill in a clear pot that I needed to pull away as I felt like the pot was cooking the roots.

My biggest concern is shielding them from the extremes. When I say we get wind here, we get some serious wind from time to time. I have everything we care about nailed down and bungy corded. I thought about building a small sheltered area for growing plants, and if I can reliably grow these guys outside I may just do that. I'm betting I could acclimate them slowly to the sun, but with how top heavy the plants are now. There's no way I wouldn't be picking them up off the ground twice a week in the summer (thunderstorms are brutal).

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by mopwr

My biggest concern is shielding them from the extremes. When I say we get wind here, we get some serious wind from time to time. I have everything we care about nailed down and bungy corded. I thought about building a small sheltered area for growing plants, and if I can reliably grow these guys outside I may just do that. I'm betting I could acclimate them slowly to the sun, but with how top heavy the plants are now. There's no way I wouldn't be picking them up off the ground twice a week in the summer (thunderstorms are brutal).

For next year when you repot, consider terracotta pots - for the weight. Even now, you can drop them, pot and all, into terracotta pots, again for the weight. You'll also get some root cooling from evaporation of water.

I put mine outside in the spring when the new growth is big enough to water and night temps are above about 55 deg. F. Then, they get brought into the GH in the fall when the nights get down to that level again. (There's usually a month or 6 weeks of serious crowding, because they still have their huge leaves at that point, but fairly soon dormancy starts and alleviates the crunch)

[mopwr]

Another week down things seem to be going good. Just a general question, and I can't seem to find anything on this online or even on the forums (a couple of quick searches). For catasetum types, do they grow tall, stop growing up at the terminal leaf, then spend the rest of the season getting wider (leaves and p-bulbs)? It seems like at least two of my catasetum types have topped out, but are still drinking a good amount - so I'm assuming (without measuring) that all that water / fertilizer is just to fatten the bulbs now.

I have a Clowesia that's grown fairly tall, but is fairly skinny overall - I'm assuming that once it reaches it's terminal height (whatever that is) that it will focus on fattening up? Is that correct?

[isurus79]

Yes, they'll spend some time fattening up. The Clowesia bulbs should end up short and fat or tall and fat, depending on the species.

[mopwr]

A little update, things are still growing - and I know these are supposed to be big, but everyday I see this thing and am just shocked.

My largest Fredclarkeara topped over 24" and then started to lean a bit, so it's a bit harder to know how "tall" it actually would be, had it kept growing straight up. The bulb just seems huge, like it's going to burst. The bulb measured from base to tip is around 12.5" and is almost 2.5" across at the widest, but it's so plump it's basically round like a cylinder (the previous years growths were a bit flat-ish). One of the pictures I took with my hand curled loosely around it just to give some perspective; and my hands are by no means small and dainty.

Last years bulb (the one I purchased it with) was not even five inches long and just a little over an inch wide, you can see it poking out of the pot in the background in one of the photos and see how ridiculously small it looks by comparison. The second growth it sprouted (about a month after the first) is much larger than the bulb it grew from, but as you can see is microscopic compared to the lead growth.

My next largest plant is only mildly off from this one to be honest. I expected that maybe I might have bulbs this big in a few years, but not right off the bat starting from 3" and 4" bulb divisions.

Regarding the original purpose of this thread, as you can see, I nested the original pot inside a soup container so I can keep a resovoir water in there - following the advice I was given here - and they are doing very well with that. The water level in that container drops about a 1/4"-3/8" a day, every day... Funny observation about that, the level will sit basically unchanged all day, but then drop fast overnight - which I think runs counter to what I'd expect biology-wise, but it's pretty entertaining to watch and keep up with.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by mopwr

The bulb just seems huge, like it's going to burst.

Nice growing! When the growing conditions are very nice and suitable for these orchids ------ they can potentially become relatively large ----- and examples of the large ones will be seen online (forum pics, youtube etc).

[WaterWitchin]

Wow mopowr!! That’s so exciting, and coming from that little pot!! I got GOALS! Not getting there yet, but sure want to. :

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by mopwr

Funny observation about that, the level will sit basically unchanged all day, but then drop fast overnight - which I think runs counter to what I'd expect biology-wise, but it's pretty entertaining to watch and keep up with.

Nope, that’s what you’d expect from this group! The CAM plants do a lot of their chemistry at night, with the stomata closed during the day. The stomata open at night and water is released, so it makes sense they’re using lots of water over night. Understanding their biology is very helpful to growing Catasetums and orchids in general.