Insane rooting behavior on this Cattleya warscewiczii

[thefish1337]

Never seen a Cattleya have this aggressive of rooting behavior...



This guy was bursting out of the pot. Normally the roots in the center of a pot like this would be sub par but as far as I can tell this plant had almost displaced all of the bark and pearlite and created a solid block of roots in the substrate's place.

[estación seca]

That's what Fred Clarke's / SVO plants are like. This is what Catt seedlings should look like with proper light, temperature, watering and fertilizing.

[Dr. Dave 4u]

I had a Catt from Hawaiian grower do that too!!

[isurus79]

Looks great!

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by estación seca

That's what Fred Clarke's / SVO plants are like. This is what Catt seedlings should look like with proper light, temperature, watering and fertilizing.

True! That's getting toward that definition of root-bound, pot-bound.

[Mr.Fakename]

Those posts are just hurting us Europeans (me, at least).
I wanna share the excessive excitement, but good luck getting their plants here.

[thefish1337]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

True! That's getting toward that definition of root-bound, pot-bound.

It is pot bound but I was foolishly waiting on the new growths to start rooting before re-potting. The new growths are huge and have been growing slower during the winter. However it appears that I should have re-potted 5 months ago because this plant is a beast.

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by thefish1337

It is pot bound but I was foolishly waiting on the new growths to start rooting before re-potting. The new growths are huge and have been growing slower during the winter. However it appears that I should have re-potted 5 months ago because this plant is a beast.

Fred's seedlings are potted in kiwi bark, which lasts far longer than it takes for the seedling to walk out of the pot. I don't repot them until this happens.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by thefish1337

It is pot bound but I was foolishly waiting on the new growths to start rooting before re-potting. The new growths are huge and have been growing slower during the winter. However it appears that I should have re-potted 5 months ago because this plant is a beast.

I would just drop that into a larger pot with new media. No need to touch the roots. I'd still wait until the new flush of roots is peeking out though.

[thefish1337]

Originally Posted by isurus79

I would just drop that into a larger pot with new media. No need to touch the roots. I'd still wait until the new flush of roots is peeking out though.

In my conditions plastic pots or bark dominant media just don't work as well for me. Too much variability in drying across my collection makes watering a chore. I grow in clay pots with bark/aggregate mixtures of no more than 30-40% bark. I don't have time to pick up each pot and water them when they approach dryness and I just don't see as healthy roots in bark plastic. My temps are in the mid 70s most of the year so I don't have the level of evapotranspriation that makes pure bark work whether in clay or plastic. I've had many more issues waiting for the perfect time to pot up so far-