Catasetum conundrums

[kikitastrophe]

Hello fellow Catasetum fans, I've become totally enamored with this genus. I grow in the cold Midwest and live in the woods (not much natural light) so I grow entirely under lights with humidity trays. I adjust the light length with the season and I measure around 2500-3000 foot candles, and my biggest challenge is humidity. I'm doing ok currently with around 50%.

Anyway, please see the following pictures and questions. Your advice is appreciated!

1. It's November and some of my collection has already gone into winter rest. I thought this was going to be a bloom, but I guess not! The leaves are still on the old bulb. Keep watering? Stop watering until new growth 4"? It looks really happy so I am inclined to keep watering.

2. When the new growth happens above the base, is this a terrible thing? Should I separate the bulbs or leave it be? Why does it happen?

3. Some (but not all) of my catasetums have picked up a habit of the cattleyas - dipping into the humidity tray! Is this a bad thing? The ones doing this seem more likely to bloom, and it makes sense from a natural standpoint that they might be able to find little puddles of moisture in the crook of large trees... But now it is November. Should I cut off these roots to simulate the dry season?

4. This one! Ugh! The first year it grew very slowly (this may have been mealy-bug associated - gone now!) This year it sent up a very twisted shoot that I had to manually open and then it sprouted this ?keiki... Should I break off the whole mess and repot the original, healthy looking bulb in the Spring? Do I let it keep doing whatever it is doing? I have no idea what to do with this.

5. I guess I won't be getting blooms this year on this one. Why do the bloom buds blast like this? What is the window where mediocre care (a dip in humidity or a late watering - what did I do wrong?) Have you ever seen a bloom happen anyway when the bud looks like this?

[Yazz]

Originally Posted by kikitastrophe

Hello fellow Catasetum fans, I've become totally enamored with this genus. I grow in the cold Midwest and live in the woods (not much natural light) so I grow entirely under lights with humidity trays. I adjust the light length with the season and I measure around 2500-3000 foot candles, and my biggest challenge is humidity. I'm doing ok currently with around 50%.

Going to reply this way.

Anyway, please see the following pictures and questions. Your advice is appreciated!

1. It's November and some of my collection has already gone into winter rest. I thought this was going to be a bloom, but I guess not! The leaves are still on the old bulb. Keep watering? Stop watering until new growth 4"? It looks really happy so I am inclined to keep watering.

Keep watering and fertilizing till the leaves fall off. Each plant has their own time schedule.

2. When the new growth happens above the base, is this a terrible thing? Should I separate the bulbs or leave it be? Why does it happen?

Not a terrible thing. It might be a spike!

3. Some (but not all) of my catasetums have picked up a habit of the cattleyas - dipping into the humidity tray! Is this a bad thing? The ones doing this seem more likely to bloom, and it makes sense from a natural standpoint that they might be able to find little puddles of moisture in the crook of large trees... But now it is November. Should I cut off these roots to simulate the dry season?

I keep my catasetum is a saucer of water and keep fresh water in it at all times. Some of them are surprisingly thirsty plants.

4. This one! Ugh! The first year it grew very slowly (this may have been mealy-bug associated - gone now!) This year it sent up a very twisted shoot that I had to manually open and then it sprouted this ?keiki... Should I break off the whole mess and repot the original, healthy looking bulb in the Spring? Do I let it keep doing whatever it is doing? I have no idea what to do with this.

IMHO, keikis are neat. If it were me, I'd want to know what happens during dormancy.

5. I guess I won't be getting blooms this year on this one. Why do the bloom buds blast like this? What is the window where mediocre care (a dip in humidity or a late watering - what did I do wrong?) Have you ever seen a bloom happen anyway when the bud looks like this?

Haven't been growing catasetum long enough to know why your buds are blasting. What I do know is they like lots of fertilizer (osmocote slow release in the media and feed them every other day with MSU), and lots of water.

Hope this helps...

[dorsetdan]

Those are some serious roots you have going on. In my experience, plants putting that much energy into roots (but not blooming) may be trying to develop a way to get more water. I have had great success growing them outside under 70% shade cloth in the mid-Atlantic once the temp is reliably above 55. Heavy water every day.

[My Green Pets]

Never cut off roots, I can say that much.

[katrina]

I don't know what your plant is there but many Clowesia/hybrids w/Clowesia like to grow roots like that (straight up in the air!) and it's no indication of anything other than a plant that is happy. No, I would not cut the roots off. It will do what it needs to do when it's ready to do it. I always start reducing water by late October (not total elimination but I do water less so they aren't constantly wet) and they automatically respond by heading into that dormant phase.

The only ones I don't reduce water are any that were recent imports and they are on a different schedule and/or compots/babies.

Young ones in this group can blast for all sorts of reasons. There's a good chance it just wasn't strong enough to bloom yet. It looks super healthy so I wouldn't worry about it.

As for your "new growth"...that might actually be a spike. it's a little to early to tell for sure.

Almost forgot...some plants in this group are big time climbers and there really is nothing you can do about it. Some are such strong climbers that the new growths will be a couple/few inches higher on the old growth every year. I got rid of a Ctsm this past summer because every year the new growth was a good 3 or 4" high on the old growth and I had the worst time keeping it upright. Hated that growth pattern. Most aren't that extreme but these guys do grow on trees and they are inclined to grow UP the tree...so it's natural and you need not worry.

[jayviado12]

I have some Catsetenae orchids but never did i have that roots growing upwards.

Here is the best culture sheet i found and this is from Fred Clarke. He is really have a lot of knowledge about catasetums. He also owns Sunset Valley Orchids which sells a lot of them for a cheap price. Here is the link. Hope this might help.

Sunset Valley Orchids - Superior Hybrids for Orchid Enthusiasts

Here are some of my Catasetum taken 2 months ago and is bieng grown inside my apartment



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[kikitastrophe]

#1 solved - it was a spike, not a growth!

#2 - looking at another grower's youtube channel I guess this happens often and I shouldn't worry.

#3 - I decided to pull the ones that were done for the year out of the humidity tray so they could go into winter rest.

[jayviado12]

Originally Posted by kikitastrophe

#1 solved - it was a spike, not a growth!

#2 - looking at another grower's youtube channel I guess this happens often and I shouldn't worry.

#3 - I decided to pull the ones that were done for the year out of the humidity tray so they could go into winter rest.

Wow, thats a spike? I was thinking it was a growth. In youtube you can follow Brittney aka Holy City Orchid.

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