Any way to guide a horizontally growing Catt growth? - Orchid Board

camille1585 · #1 07-01-2019, 04:49 PM

Title says it all, photo shows it all. I noticed this a bit too late, do you have suggestions on how to gently guide this growth into a more normal orientation? I don't have much experience with Catts so don't know how bendy these are.

rbarata · #2 07-01-2019, 05:48 PM

What I do is to rotate the pot so that the new growth is facing to the opposite side of the window/light.
This way it will grow straight up.
Regarding its horizontal growth habit, I think it's a lost fight because it's genetic.
Best option is to put it in a basket, shallow and large. Otherwise soon you'll have roots growing outside the pot, like this one I had.

after 1 and 1/2 year

camille1585 · #3 07-02-2019, 03:14 AM

Thanks for the advice. I had already turned the pot the other way, so I guess it's wait and see. I'll find a large shallow pot (I can't deal with the nearly daily watering needs of a basket, or the mess of watering it inside).

I was hoping to avoid having yet another unruly Catt. I've had an aclandiae hybrid for many years that started looking like your second photo early on, with no hopes of repotting it correctly. I ended up putting the entire thing in a vase and it seems to enjoy living there with the root tips constantly in water.

I see that in your second photo you even have growths growing downwards!

AnonYMouse · #4 07-02-2019, 04:40 AM

I have a Bulbo that keeps throwing rhizome toward the edge of the pot no matter what orientation I face it. I've been putting clear plastic sheets as barriers. I find plastic packaging (windows on boxes, beverage bottles cut up) and tuck them between the media and the pot. This is also what I do for unruly Neo roots.

ArronOB · #5 07-02-2019, 06:53 AM

In terms of roots growing outside the basket, isn’t that a good thing - unless you have some aesthetic objection. Roots and media never really get on well.

bogdan · #6 07-02-2019, 08:03 AM

I let them get a bit bigger and then tie them gently and gradually with thick wire, until they are in the desired position. Most of them go easily, a few snap (at me, ha!).

Fairorchids · #7 07-02-2019, 08:22 AM

While most Cattleyas grow fairly tidy, a few plants are very unruly (I had one, which sent out each new growth 1.1/2" forward and 2" UP!).

If you like the flower, you pretty much have to live with it.
If you would prefer a tidier collection member, you donate the plant to your orchid society as a raffle or auction plant.

camille1585 · #8 07-02-2019, 09:07 AM

Thanks for the suggestions! I do want to keep it for now since I bought it in the spring and have yet to see it bloom. If the flowers are as nice as the photos of it (it's an Lc. Final Blue), I'm keeping it, unruly or not.