Female Buds...One Looks Different

[LauraN]

Seems I arrived at the party late and Glen beat me to the answer
lol

[Junebug]

The female blossoms still look fresh but the single hermaphroditic bloom expired yesterday. It was larger than the females, the last to bloom, and like a male blossom it lasted only 4 days.

[glengary54]

Junebug - sounds just about right, the female flowers can last for weeks. Did the hermaphroditic bloom have it's pollen dislodged, that would account for it's rapid demise.

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by glengary54

Junebug - sounds just about right, the female flowers can last for weeks. Did the hermaphroditic bloom have it's pollen dislodged, that would account for it's rapid demise.

I don't really know. I took follow-up photos when the lighting was bad and the flower's reproductive parts turned out fuzzy. Bummer!

Hey, while I have your attention I've got a question. This plant has a 2" keiki that sprouted from a 2 year old leafless bulb. Right now it has plenty of leaves and roots and it looks healthy. The cane it's growing from is growing central to the plant and it has a small circle of scabbed over rot near it's base. This Catasetum doesn't reach full dormancy until January or February and I'm not sure how to treat the keiki. I've made an effort to help it along by tying a little blob of sphag over it's roots, but I'm concerned that it will perish as dormancy approaches. Actually I don't know if the youngsters go dormant.

At some time I need to divide the mature plant and remove the old central bulb and was thinking I could do this sometime in between dormancy and new growth or after the onset of new growth. Again, I don't know how to approach this. If the keiki makes it through winter I could remove the cane and lay it horizontal over some sphag, allowing the keiki to grow.

Any suggestions?

[glengary54]

Junebug - The plant will dictate how you treat the small new growth. If the new growth doesn't start to lose it leaves when the mother plant does, I would remove it and pot it up and keep it growing over the winter, watering it enough to keep it barely damp. If on the other hand, the small new growth starts to go dormant along with the mother plant, I would let it. In the Spring as the plant starts to put out new growth I would twist the growth that we are talking about off of the mother plant and pot it up. I would also remove the growth that it was gowing on, which you said had some rot issues. If the bulb is still in good condition, you can simply lay it on some damp moss and it could very well send up more new growths that you can eventually pot up. Hope this helps!!

[Junebug]

Originally Posted by glengary54

Junebug - The plant will dictate how you treat the small new growth. If the new growth doesn't start to lose it leaves when the mother plant does, I would remove it and pot it up and keep it growing over the winter, watering it enough to keep it barely damp. If on the other hand, the small new growth starts to go dormant along with the mother plant, I would let it. In the Spring as the plant starts to put out new growth I would twist the growth that we are talking about off of the mother plant and pot it up. I would also remove the growth that it was gowing on, which you said had some rot issues. If the bulb is still in good condition, you can simply lay it on some damp moss and it could very well send up more new growths that you can eventually pot up. Hope this helps!!

Thank you Glen. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. BTW, your avatar Kitty is gorgeous.

[glengary54]

Junebug - Thank you, the avatar is my 4 1/2 year old long haired Siamese (Balinese) Bruce. He is a real charecter, unfortunately he doesn't like having his picture taken.