Quick look at Cattleya seedlings

[Shadeflower]

I took a picture of what my newest cattleya seedlings are up to in December, middle of the winter here.



I'm newish to seedlings so not sure what they are meant to be doing but I think it should be more than my Cattleya mini love which is struggling the most out of the lot, top left.
If you look real close you will see it is growing a new shoot, yay, but it's already the third one it has tried to grow having aborted the other two as tiny little stumps so hopefully this one grows a bit bigger but it is still struggling.

Next to it still on the upper row is my laelia pumila which is growing a new shoot.

to the right of that one is my Cattleya Intermedia seedling which is growing some new growth but it's still very much a seedling.

on the far right is my laelia anceps seedling. I showed this one covered in live moss a while ago, I removed the moss and repotted it. I find live moss eventually grows on and in to orchid roots. I'm not a fan of live moss so no more of that even if it looks nice. Probably the roots degraded and the moss grew into the roots but I don't need moss so not taking any risks there.

Then bottom row on the left are 3 cattleya coccinea seedlings. Doing ok but they are very slow growers so haven't really done much in a year.

Next to them is one I am very happy with my Catt mini purple. It's newest pseudobulb and leaf are looking magnificent so this one seems very happy.

Then last one at the bottom to the right of the mini purple is my cattleya maxima, just producing a new growth too.

Lets hope they make it through winter. Might be going down to 13 degrees at times - the coccinea can handle it, I've had them that long, the mini purple is a small variety so bigger than it seems, the only one I am not too sure about is the intermedia, it will be its first cold winter but it should be a hardy variety so that's my baby collection of Catts and what they are up to at the beginning of winter here.

[SouthPark]

Looks like they're all definitely hanging in there. Nice and green.

[Jeff214]

I think they look healthy overall - good job!

[Shadeflower]

thx, someone asked recently "what next" after growing nice roots and what is next is the leaves of course

Once you have good roots + great leaves you should automatically get great flowers.

But we all know it's been all about the leaves for me recently and for good reason, the mini love top left did not like getting attacked by thrips one bit and it really is touch and go for that one.

I also recently made a comment about not wanting a schilleriana in my collection and preferring an acclandiae but after reading: Cattleya schilleriana

and finding a C schilleriana var coerulea which I really like that will be joining my collection soon I hope.

[Jeff214]

I've been collecting alot of cattleya seedlings over the pandemic (what else was I to do while in total lockdown for months in california?) I've found that an airy medium and misting helped my seedlings root, especially bifoliates. Without a good root system, bifoliates, in particular, do seem to suffer. seedling or mature plants.

I did get a schilleriana and an acclanidae alba but the roots on both seem a little more fussy than leopoldii, granulosa, velutina, or harrisoniana. I think amethystoglossa is also fussy with rooting. I tipped it over and had to repot. It's been sulking for a year now.

anyway, hope you find that schilleriana coerulea!

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[SADE2020]

What is the medium Shade?

[Diane56Victor]

They look good, nice and healthy.

[Shadeflower]

Sade sorry I missed your question.
I use a layer of lecca at the bottom of my self watering pots and then a top layer of pumice around the roots. Then if it needs to stay a bit wetter I will sprinkle perlite on top and tap that into the air gaps a bit. Although perlite blocks the gaps it is still a very airy substrate so it traps humidity but still lets air pass too.

So I want to introduce a Cattleya luteola seedling I have been trying to grow.
Well it's two of them. Started off with 4 but they never did well till I started feeding a balanced fertilizer.
Now finally after waiting patiently one has decided to grow a new pseudobullb in my care. I think it's the first one in 18 months!
As you can see from the size it has always just been hanging in there. Finally we have some action and it's looking like a pretty healthy pseudobulb.

So you have to look closely at the left plant, the right one isn't doing anything yet and then to the right of that a Cattlya labiata to show the difference in size of the pseudobulbs!