Off-season dormancy

[MateoinLosAngeles]

I have a Monnierara Millennium Magic 'Witchcraft' that was gifted to me in late Spring. This is a young seedling with two pseudobulbs.

The plant media was moist on arrival, and it had a fully developed growth. I assumed this growth was this season's; however, the plant has been slowly losing leaves, and its current growth is slightly bigger than the previous. I think it's going dormant... in July!

I've heard of this from people that import plants from the Southern Hemisphere, or that buy from nurseries that continue keeping the plants warm and watering them, without letting them go dormant. I don't have much information on the history of this plant other than it comes from a local shop, the tag says "Kalapana Tropicals" which I'm not familiar with as a vendor other than knowing they do a whole lot of wholesale and, at least in my area, many corner shop orchids come from them.

Should I continue watering until it drops all the leaves? And if the plant goes dormant, should I expect it to stay dormant until next Spring?

What are the odds of survival in a situation like this? / How can I improve them?

Thank you!

[estación seca]

Kalapana is in Hawaii. If they never get below 60 F / 15C they probably water all year. However, they are also in the Northern Hemisphere, so their plants should be on about the same growth schedule as yours.

Whenever a Catasetum starts losing leaves I worry about, first, spider mites, and second, whether I'm watering enough.

Does the new growth consist of mostly leaves, or is there a large, developed new pseudobulb? They typically go dormant after the new pseudobulb has expanded. If it's mostly leaves it's not time to go dormant.

Any chance you have spider mites attacking the leaves?

How is it potted, and how are you watering it?

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Thanks Estación! I haven’t seen any spider mites and I try to watch the Catasetinae like a hawk but I don’t think it would hurt to do a treatment with Organishield or Insecticidal Soap maybe followed by Azamax. My partner has had a recent spider mite infestation in his herb collection so it’s not like they aren’t in the house.

It was given to me in a black nursery pot with bark and I placed it in a clear one of the same size adding some more bark and perlite to fill around it. I don’t let it dry out usually watering heavily twice a week and heavily misting pot once or twice between waterings. Heavy waterings are 50 ppm N each watering, heavy misting is pure RO, there is some slow release fertilizer sprinkled on top my calculation aimed to provide 800 ppm N a month between water soluble and slow release fert. The new pseudobulb doesn’t look like it has developed to “full potential” but the leaves do begin above the top of last year’s pbulb so it’s currently about 1.25x the size of last year’s bulb. It is, however, a bit thinner but I have never grown Monnierara, the Fdks I have tend to have roundier chubbier pbulbs whereas my “classic“ Catasetum seem to be thinner and taller. Not sure what the particulars of Monnierara are.

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[estación seca]

Spider mites are everywhere outside in the landscape. You always will have them returning. That may or may not be the issue here but you must expect them.

[isurus79]

I would keep it hot and bright, and keep watering