Catasetinae not doing well

[MateoinLosAngeles]

I had issues with a Galeandra and emailed Fred Clarke, he said "give it as much light, heat, and humidity as possible." I did just that and the plant completely rebounded, now it's spiking.

Left it in direct afternoon sun, western exposure, in Los Angeles, outdoors, temperature range 50-90, humidity over 50% daily, sometimes 90% at night. Plant loved it.

I kept some indoors that are growing "fine" but added an extra lamp and placed them on heat mats which seems to have helped get a bit more robust growth. These can still get toasted under direct sun so it's a delicate balance of acclimating it and having the proper humidity and air movement.

I've found with catasetum all of these factors mater a lot: lots of light, heat, humidity, water, AND AIR MOVEMENT. This is total speculation, and I don't know why, but after growing Catasetum for about three years I noticed that everything being equal, adding air movement (like a fan pointing at them with a slight breeze) seems to accelerate growth and prevent rot. No rots this year with fan continually running indoors. Had a rot on the top of a backbulb in a Mormodes outdoors, but my understanding is this is frequent with Mormodes and Cycnoches, I chopped it off and sprinkled some cinnamon on the wound, continued growing just fine.

[tmoney]

hey dala..

so our catasetums aren't doing too great either this summer. don't beat yourself up about it!

the only thing i wanted to write is that i agree 100% with you when you said that catasetums are a real challenge!

hope that you have a couple left to try again next year...