cattleya loddigesii in trouble

[Tango]

Dear Cattleya lovers,
I have a C. loddigesii since June. The plant arrived almost with no roots but soon started growing vigorously. It seemed easy to keep but when the new roots were about 10 cm they started to rot suddenly. I guess I was overwatering. I extracted the plant from the substrate and cleaned it from dead parts, and it started to grow again, but of course less vigorously.
Now I have it without substrate and water it every day - then let dry (soaking for 10 minutes, the plant is dry within 7 hours).
It seems I'm underwarering, as the new roots cease to grow. It's my first botanical Cattleya, and it's sad to see it decline.
I am clueless, so please somebody with experience, help!!!
Thanks,
Tango

[SouthPark]

Tango ----- if that picture was taken very recently, such as today, then that is good news, because it still has at least 1 nice root for getting water into the plant.

What you now need to do is to not allow any more roots to drown by having the roots too wet for relatively long periods of time.

Each grower has their own method or style of growing their orchids. In the tropics over here, one style that has worked excellently for me is to use a relatively wide pot. It can be deep too ..... but too big a pot will just mean wastage of media and water too (ie. overkill hehehe) ...... but the pot can actually be as big and huge as one likes --- if they're not afraid of wasting potting media and water that is.

Click Here and Click Here and Click Here and Click Here and Click Here
Click Here

The picture at Click Here doesn't require every detail to be followed. Eg. the 'spacers' aren't always necessary ---- they're just to make sure the bottom of the pot doesn't ever sit in drained water. I don't use spacers myself, as I know my pots won't sit in drained water. And generally no need to use two different sizes of scoria. The main idea is to allow the inside of the pot to stay humid without keeping the roots too wet for long periods of time. For anybody that hasn't tried this for maybe just 1 or 2 of their orchids ...... it is actually a nice little test. You might like it so much that you can keep using it for yourself for all your catts (and some other kinds of orchids too).

[Tango]

Wow that's a lot of material, I'll do my homework!! Many thanks.
I'll pot it in charcoal with large chunks just below the plant.

But I'm still concerned about the water regime. This seems to be a very finicky plant, since my other Catts really do well without special attention. They are all hybrids.

I see a lot of photos of good plants with thick white roots and wonder if my plant is sentenced

Thank you again!

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Tango

I see a lot of photos of good plants with thick white roots and wonder if my plant is sentenced.

At the moment, there appears to be every chance that your plant can continue to grow and become excellent.

The circled regions are very good signs.

Just maintain nice temperatures, and nice lighting conditions, and gentle air-movement around leaves, stem, and roots (including gentle air-flow within the media itself). And avoid drowning of regular roots by not allowing the roots to have relatively stationary/still water clinging to them for long periods of time ..... and all should be fine.

And also occasionally use weak fertiliser and weak mag-cal. You probably use those already - so just mentioning ---- just in case.

[Tango]

Thank you South Park, I'll do. I hope I can post a photo of a healthy plant in the next few months!!
Best,
Tango

[SouthPark]

Most welcome Tango!

[estación seca]

Bifoliate Catts resent root disturbance. Their roots also die back when the humidity is low. It would be hard to pot your plant now without damaging the growing root, so don't do that.

Many people grow this plant in a basket with no, or almost no medium at all. In this situation it needs to be watered at least once a day.

The time to put into medium is when new roots are just beginning, less than 2-3mm long. This plant does best for most people with very large pieces of medium, or no medium at all. It should get dry between waterings if in medium.

[Roberta]

Adding to what ES said, just cut back on the water. That will have the same effect as changing to a less-retentive medium, but will not harm the plant which potting out of season would do. (In general, choose your medium so that you get the effect that you want, with your general watering schedule) But do note that a lot of orchids - especially bifoliate Catts - are very picky about repotting, so need to do only when new roots are starting. Others, such as Phals and Paphs, are rooting pretty much all the time and therefore don't care. So they're not all the same...

[isurus79]

Sounds like you got a problem plant from day one! As said previously, bifoliates are really finicky when it comes to the timing of repotting, with a very narrow window of success afforded to repotting with new root growth. Getting a plant in the mail with a bad root system greatly reduces your chances of success. I’ve found this species to be on the more forgiving side and is fairly easy to grow, so hopefully it recovers. It might be worthwhile to find another plant with robust root system to get growing for you.

[estación seca]

Various speakers have shown our society photos of this in habitat growing in full sun, in beach sand in Brazil, where sand temperatures are measured at around 50C. It is a very tough plant. Your plant is making new roots and a new growth, so I think it has a good chance of surviving.