Ordered my first ever Catasetinae- need culture advice

[camille1585]

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at growing a few Catasetinae for a long time, but until 4 years ago I didn’t have a bright enough spot for them (I had north-east facing windows, not they're south facing). My interest in them was rekindled over the fall/winter as I saw thread after thread of everybody’s Catasetinae in bloom and then I couldn’t resist any longer….

So I ordered two rather compact growing Cats:
*Clowesia Rebecca Northen
*Clowesetum Melana's Daughter (Cl. Rebecca Northen x Ctsm. Melana Davison).

I discovered that the latter is a recent Fred Clarke cross registered in 2018. Now I’m curious to ask the German nursery if their plants are imports from SVO, because it would make me really happy to have one of Fred Clarke’s plants!

I read the culture info on the SVO site. If I got it right: no watering until the roots are a few inches long. Grow in Cattleya light levels. Heavy watering and feeding. Start reducing watering when leaves start to yellow or by mid-November, stop watering when all leaves are gone or at start of January otherwise. Am I missing anything important?

Do you start with the heavy fertilizing immediately with the first watering of the year or bump it up gradually? And add it at every watering? The SVO sheet says to use a balanced full strength fertilizer. I assume they mean something like the 20-20-20 I use on my collection, but I have no idea what dosage ‘full strength’ corresponds to. I buy my fertilizer from a local orchid nursery and they indicate heavily diluted dosages for standard orchid culture (1g/L, which comes out to roughly 50ppm N).

Now I'm waiting for the weather to warm up so that the grower can ship my order. The 2 Cats aren't traveling alone, there are 3 other orchids keeping them company in the box.

[Subrosa]

Sounds pretty good, but Fwiw I give my Catasetum much more than Cattleya light. Here on the 40th parallel, I give them as much full sun outdoors as I can, once the temps are warm enough and after acclimating gradually to the increased light. While they're actively growing indoors, I just give them as much light, both natural and artificial as I can.

[jcec1]

I add slow release fertiliser granules to the pot as well as giving them liquid feed, I start feeding them early in the season. They grow as fast as herbaceous perennials rather than orchids!

I grow in South facing windows with no shading.

I find them really rewarding and now have more than a dozen of them.

[Subrosa]

I also use a layered substrate. I fill the pot about 2/3 full with a mix of about 2 parts composted manure to 1 part perlite. The remainder of the pot is filled with sphagnum. By the time the roots have grown down into the manure, they're ready for the heavy feeding it provides.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

Sounds pretty good, but Fwiw I give my Catasetum much more than Cattleya light. Here on the 40th parallel, I give them as much full sun outdoors as I can, once the temps are warm enough and after acclimating gradually to the increased light. While they're actively growing indoors, I just give them as much light, both natural and artificial as I can.

Thanks for the info. I'm way up at the 52nd parallel so they can definitely take full sun outside once acclimated.

Originally Posted by jcec1

I add slow release fertiliser granules to the pot as well as giving them liquid feed, I start feeding them early in the season. They grow as fast as herbaceous perennials rather than orchids!

I grow in South facing windows with no shading.

I find them really rewarding and now have more than a dozen of them.

Good tip for the slow release fertiliser, I think I have some in the closet! I'm afraid that I'm going to get addicted to these plants, but they take up a lot more space than my Neofinetia addiction!

[estación seca]

Fred Clarke writes this on the Sunset Valley Orchids Web site:

Fertilizer: When in active growth, regularly use one teaspoon of your favorite fertilizer per gallon of water.

When he spoke to our club he told us we could use either a 20-20-20 formula or MSU, which has 13 for the nitrogen. A teaspoon is 5ml and a gallon is 3.78 liters. Using Ray's fertilizer calculator 1 tsp / gallon of 20-20-20 works out to 265 ppm nitrogen. The same quantity of MSU works out to 172 ppm. In his lecture to our society Fred told us we could use this for every watering. I use 20-20-20 for Catasetinae.

Many of us find we must stand the pots in dishes of water to keep them from drying out. In the Netherlands this might not be as important as in a warmer place, but they really do like a lot of water. Fred says he uses only long-fiber sphagnum for his own plants, and this is what his seedlings arrive in. (He uses Kiwi Bark for his seedling Cattleyas, Dendrobiums and Paphs.) Fred says if you use bark, use fine bark. The object is to hold a lot of water.

Fred's lecture on these plants shows numerous photos of plants in northern South America, near the equator, growing in near-full sun. They have never come close to burning here with direct Arizona summer sun through a window. I am at 33.5 degrees North.

The only problems I have had have been keeping up with watering, and spider mites. I have not tried them outside in the summer, because our hottest weather is combined with very low humidity. When I get some plants big enough to divide, I will try putting them outside during the summer, standing in water.

[Roberta]

In response to the question about fertilizer strength when starting out... Fred Clarke says that when he starts watering in the spring, he uses 1/2 tsp per gallon (half strength) then goes to full strength as the plants start to get into full growth. (that little fine point didn't make it into the write-up but he mentions it in his talks)

These plants need to "reinvent" themselves each year, having only about 6 months to mature their growth before they're slowing down again. So they grow really fast. One of the things I like about them is that in winter, when they are leafless, they don't take up a lot of room in the greenhouse (or house) When they are in full foliage, the weather is typically warm enough to put them outside, where they have room to spread out (and they can get more light, too).

A little note about Clowesia Rebecca Northen... it blooms right about now, on completely leafless p-bulbs. No water, it's still dormant (but delightfully fragrant and beautiful... Sleeping Beauty??) It wakes up only well after the flowers are done.

[camille1585]

Thanks for all the extra comments!

Sounds like mine will do fine outside here in the summer, where it's warm (usually in the 70s) and fairly humid (60-80%).

I don't expect that the Clo Rebecca Nothen will arrive in bloom, I think it was listed as NBS/ 1 year to blooming. I can't check, it's no longer on the website.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I don't expect that the Clo Rebecca Nothen will arrive in bloom, I think it was listed as NBS/ 1 year to blooming. I can't check, it's no longer on the website.

If NBS, it is probably not in bloom... but next year, at about this time (on bare p-bulbs) look for flowers. Your other one, that has Rebecca Northen as one parent, will probably not bloom so early, that one you'll just have to watch and be delighted when it does bloom.

[Regelian]

Camille, if from Frau Elsner, then it is SVO. It will most likely have a tag from the company. I have many plants from her, which she regularly imports from Fred Clarke.
As I am in a similar climate zone in Cologne, I have found that most of my Catasetinae do not do well outside in the Summer. The nights are too cool (under 15° is common). Admittedly, this last Summer was VERY cold in Germany and we had almost no sun, plus masses of rain (set new records), which really cools things down at night. Also, snails and slugs were a major plague. I had very few blooms this year. If you have a sheltered warm spot for the Summer, then give it a try. Just keep in mind, these plants really profit from warm nights, which you may well have. Are you in Utrecht?
Groetjes uit Keule,
Jamie