What to do with this? (Catasetum keiki)

[MateoinLosAngeles]

This is Ctsm. Jamie Lawson XOXO, which I got as a bare-rooted division back in March. It was a bit late for it to get repotted since it already had 1-2 long roots but still, you do what you can with what you have.

No roots ever got to the bottom of the pot, it got a bit of a drink of water mixed with Kelpak and sprayed around the sides which helped plump the pseudobulbs a little bit in mid May. Yet, as you see, it's pretty shriveled. I tried to avoid spraying on top of the new growth as my intention was to simply give it some moisture to make sure it had enough energy to push those roots down. Might've been my mistake.

I was inspecting it today to see if I should start watering and bite the bullet, roots or not, and noticed that it had a small growth towards the upper part of the bulb. At the very top I had a big flower clip helping keep the plant stable, to my surprise, underneath the clip an even bigger growth had been developing with roots and all, at the veeeery top of the pseudobulb.

So now I'm like, okay, this is not shooting long roots that I can see, yet it has a big new growth, and 3 small satellite growths, one at the base and two at the very top of the pseudobulb.

Should I stress this plant even more and pot it horizontally, cut the back growth and pot it separately, place some sphagnum underneath the uppermost keiki? Do I try to cut it and pot it up by itself? I really wasn't prepared for this!

[isurus79]

I would just pop off those new growths to let the plant focus growing the big on in the pot

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by isurus79

I would just pop off those new growths to let the plant focus growing the big on in the pot

Would you just yank them and completely destroy them or would you attempt to at least pot the one with roots up? After dettaching, is it still prudent to wait to water until roots on the main growth reach the bottom of the pot even as we get into the summer? Or is it better to just water now and let the plant try to get in as much water and fertilizer as possible during the warm season? I would look at the root system but my concern is popping out the plant and finally decimate whatever roots it has.

[isurus79]

I would just toss those new growths. They're too small to grow on their own.

That new growth looks big enough to water. Are you sure the roots aren't already at the bottom of the pot?

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by isurus79

I would just toss those new growths. They're too small to grow on their own.

That new growth looks big enough to water. Are you sure the roots aren't already at the bottom of the pot?

Yeah, very sure and frustrated about it! I really haven't encountered this before with such a big growth.

I emailed Fred Clarke and he suggested to try to leave the tiny growth on and get the roots wet and pot it in a 2 inch pot next year. I might try that and see what happens.

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by isurus79

I would just toss those new growths. They're too small to grow on their own.

That new growth looks big enough to water. Are you sure the roots aren't already at the bottom of the pot?

I ended up taking the plant out of the pot, and the root system was non-existent. The newest roots were barely 2 inches long. Some seemed to have stopped growing, and others had sunken tips as if they had a bush snail attack (the pot seemed clean, and no signs of snails, though). I wonder if I had too much slow-release fertilizer in the pot, which might've caused the roots to burn or maybe it just was divided at the wrong time, and everything went downhill from there.

I'm thinking this plant might be a goner, but just in case, I proceeded to soak the roots in water with Kelpak and Quantum and some very diluted fertilizer at 25 ppm N for 3 hours. While still getting lots of light. Then I placed it in a jar with damp Sphagnum at the bottom and a heat mat underneath. I might attempt to soak it in water every day to see if I can get it to plump up and then leave it bare root overnight.

The hope is the humidity at the base might maybe trigger some new root production? I'm also going to keep observing the small growth at the top and see if I can get longer roots in there, then I'll start watering it... maybe it'll give me a chance at saving the plant albeit setting it back years.

[SG in CR]

I've seen this in Mormodes and Cychnoches and it's almost always because there some damage/rot at the base of the bulb. Me personally, I would find a piece of wood that's been outside for a while that is still reasonable solid but already fungus-stained, cut off a piece long enough to serve as a post for tying the bulb with the growths to and repot it with the "post" buried in the pot and the p-bulb with the growths tied firmly to the "post' high enough to keep the base of the plant just slightly suspended above the media. Let the plant grow it's roots down into it and hopefully the keikis will grow their roots onto the "post" and develop enough for you to be able to separate them off later.

[isurus79]

Ugh, that’s frustrating! Hopefully the back bulbs fatten. You might get some new roots forming this growing season.