Autumn Catasetum Growing Guide

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Mr.Fakename

Says the guy with Catasetum bulbs the size of my forearm! We don't all live in Texas

Ha! Fair enough! Although I’d say Bernie Butts with his basement collection in Toronto puts my collection to shame!

[Mr.Fakename]

I'd be very interested in seeing that, does he have a website or something?

[WaterWitchin]

Sade, you must try Catasetum. I went over two decades without trying them. Got my first five last fall, just bloomed my first one this year, and I'm in love. There's nothing like something I can set onto an empty shelf somewhere during the holiday season, then pull it out in the spring. Beats the heck out of some of those divas that require constant year-round nurturing for a week of blooms.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Mr.Fakename

I'd be very interested in seeing that, does he have a website or something?

Bernie started the Facebook group called "Catasetinae (Can), Cyrtopodiinae & related intergenerics" and he shows his growing set up quite often throughout the year. As far as I can tell, it's the largest Catasetum oriented FB group in North America. The group called "Catasetum Brazil" is the largest Catasetum group on FB (as far as I can tell) and only has a few hundred more members than the page started by Bernie.

[Paola]

Hi Stephen, hi everyone.
I am fond of Catas and cycnos but even if I live in Italy (Rome) with a temperate climate, summers are really dry and winters humid and cold. Not the very best conditions to cultivate these beauties. Now, I succeed in keeping Them Alive, having new growths which develop in robust pbulbs but with no flowers. I have been cultivating Them for 3 years mounted, in s/h, in leca/sphagnum, every way but the result does not change: beatiful pbulbs but no spikes. Why!??😭😭. At this time of the year I have 19 °Celsius at night and 24 (sometimes 27°Celsius) during the day. No Yellow leaves yet. Should I move Them inside the house??

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Paola

Hi Stephen, hi everyone.
I am fond of Catas and cycnos but even if I live in Italy (Rome) with a temperate climate, summers are really dry and winters humid and cold. Not the very best conditions to cultivate these beauties. Now, I succeed in keeping Them Alive, having new growths which develop in robust pbulbs but with no flowers. I have been cultivating Them for 3 years mounted, in s/h, in leca/sphagnum, every way but the result does not change: beatiful pbulbs but no spikes. Why!??😭😭. At this time of the year I have 19 °Celsius at night and 24 (sometimes 27°Celsius) during the day. No Yellow leaves yet. Should I move Them inside the house??

Your climate is rather similar to mine. (At my house, "rain" comes from a hose. ) I move mine outside in the spring when they are ready for watering (roots 10 cm/ 4 inches or so) once nights get above 12-13 deg C (55 deg F). They get fairly bright light - I use 50% shade cloth so that I don't toast them, but they do want lots of light. Keep them very wet (I use sphagnum moss, or you can sit them in a saucer of water) and it hleps to add time-release fertilizer to supplement regular fertilizing. (They are very hungry and thirsty during rapid growth!) I am just now starting to move some into my greenhouse as nights get down to that 12-13 deg C level (55 deg F) but they could stay out a bit longer, since days are still warm. Most will still have leaves when I move them inside because of cool nights, but I will be reducing water and no more fertilizer, and once they drop their leaves in about 2 months (most will do it by the end of December) they will need nothing at all until next spring. During the next two months, even as they go dormant, I will have some flowers - I can see spikes developing. They can bloom on completely bare pseudobulbs!

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Your climate is rather similar to mine. (At my house, "rain" comes from a hose. ) I move mine outside in the spring when they are ready for watering (roots 10 cm/ 4 inches or so) once nights get above 12-13 deg C (55 deg F). They get fairly bright light - I use 50% shade cloth so that I don't toast them, but they do want lots of light. Keep them very wet (I use sphagnum moss, or you can sit them in a saucer of water) and it hleps to add time-release fertilizer to supplement regular fertilizing. (They are very hungry and thirsty during rapid growth!) I am just now starting to move some into my greenhouse as nights get down to that 12-13 deg C level (55 deg F) but they could stay out a bit longer, since days are still warm. Most will still have leaves when I move them inside because of cool nights, but I will be reducing water and no more fertilizer, and once they drop their leaves in about 2 months (most will do it by the end of December) they will need nothing at all until next spring. During the next two months, even as they go dormant, I will have some flowers - I can see spikes developing. They can bloom on completely bare pseudobulbs!

Paola,
Can you also tell us a bit about your growing conditions? How often do you water and fertilize? How much sun are your plants getting?

[Paola]

Thank you Roberta!
Stephen, I keep some of them mounted on Cork and in vessels filled with water, others in S/h with leca. I need It since I work at 65kms away from home therefore I spend quite all of my time away and as I told you in Summer the climate Is desperately dry. When the growings are young they all sit under my patio with no water at all of course, then I move Then under my mimosa tree when they stay until November, with plenty of light and fertilizer. Then, when temps drop to 15°C and start raining more frequently, they come back to my patio so that Rain cannot wet Them. They are fine to tell the true, plump and vigorous (not like yours though😁😁, yours are super!!!!), But no flower. Maybe I Need to take Them inside. I do not have a Green House unfortunately, but I can keep Them on May Windows sulla racing to west.

[isurus79]

I'm not sure! It all sounds pretty good, though I'd recommend taking the plant off the mount since it's so dry there. Are the plants a mature size?

[Paola]

The Fdk has 3 p/bulbs. I mean the new One grown this season Is the 3rd and last.
And so has the Tenebrosum. I try to attach a pic