WATERING AND LIGHT IN UK IN WINTER

[monet]

Hi, A very Happy New Year to everyone.
I have bought a cattleya a few days ago it was bone dry when I purchased it should I water it? It is in my house I have stood it on pebbles in a fish tank with the other one, No lid on the tank. I have a 12" fluorescent light that is about a foot away from the plant. I have a smaller cattleya which is producing new shoots. It is in west facing window. Should I be watering the new plant feeding ect. Thank you in advance for any help.

[james mickelso]

What is the tempurature at which you are growing it? It will put out new growth buds which will not have roots yet. It is feeding off the old pbulbs and they are not feeding much unless you have the temps warm and high light intensity. I'm not familiar with artificial lights. I feed my orchids even in winter but very very lightly in winter at every watering. I use Growmore orchid food at 1/8 tsp to 1/4 tsp to gallon water. But in winter I only water once every two weeks or so. Wieght of the pot tells me when.

[james mickelso]

I would repot this orchid in spring before the new growth has roots longer than an inch or so. The reason is that it has grown to the side of the pot and the next growth will be hanging out of the pot. Not a problem except that it can be potted so the new growth grows to the center of the pot and is better balanced. I don't like catts that are growing out of the pot with all the wasted space in the pot. You can also get more new growth out of this if you repot it. By cutting halfway through the rizome at each length of rizome between pbulbs with a razor blade you can coax the old pbulbs to put out a bud. Works all the time for me.

[why_le]

Hi there,
I live in london and I grow mostly bifoliate cattleya.
I do keep them in a heated mini greenhouse though with a 250w cfl light.
Your plant looks quite good from the pic, you should water it throughly like immerse it in water for a while than just mist it once a day for the next couple of weeks and see how it goes.
If the fluorescent light you are using is not powerful enough and is not covering the color temperature the plant needs it is useless.
I have no experience with cattleya hybrids but I think that even a north facing window will not be enough in winter....
In regards to the feeding its the last thing you should worry of, if you really want to use some fertiliser I reccomend a basic 20 20 20 at low strength.

[monet]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

I would repot this orchid in spring before the new growth has roots longer than an inch or so. The reason is that it has grown to the side of the pot and the next growth will be hanging out of the pot. Not a problem except that it can be potted so the new growth grows to the center of the pot and is better balanced. I don't like catts that are growing out of the pot with all the wasted space in the pot. You can also get more new growth out of this if you repot it. By cutting halfway through the rizome at each length of rizome between pbulbs with a razor blade you can coax the old pbulbs to put out a bud. Works all the time for me.

Hi James
Thank you for your reply. The orchid is starting into growth now. Right at the base there are 3 new shoots coming are these going to be flowering shoots? I will repot soon and try the rizome cutting.
Regards Pam.

---------- Post added at 07:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 AM ----------

Originally Posted by why_le

Hi there,
I live in london and I grow mostly bifoliate cattleya.
I do keep them in a heated mini greenhouse though with a 250w cfl light.
Your plant looks quite good from the pic, you should water it throughly like immerse it in water for a while than just mist it once a day for the next couple of weeks and see how it goes.
If the fluorescent light you are using is not powerful enough and is not covering the color temperature the plant needs it is useless.
I have no experience with cattleya hybrids but I think that even a north facing window will not be enough in winter....
In regards to the feeding its the last thing you should worry of, if you really want to use some fertiliser I reccomend a basic 20 20 20 at low strength.

Hi,
Thank you for your reply. I live in Oxfordshire. I have done as you suggested and the orchid has 3 new shoots at the base. It will go in my conservatory when it is warmer. Regards Pam.

---------- Post added at 07:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:04 AM ----------

Originally Posted by james mickelso

What is the tempurature at which you are growing it? It will put out new growth buds which will not have roots yet. It is feeding off the old pbulbs and they are not feeding much unless you have the temps warm and high light intensity. I'm not familiar with artificial lights. I feed my orchids even in winter but very very lightly in winter at every watering. I use Growmore orchid food at 1/8 tsp to 1/4 tsp to gallon water. But in winter I only water once every two weeks or so. Wieght of the pot tells me when.

Hi James,
The temp. is from 50 ish night to 70 ish daytime.
Regards Pam.

[Brooke]

Please don't cut the rhizome on a plant that small. A Catt uses the energy stored in the older pbulbs to produce new growth and blooms.

For the Catts future benefit, let it grow into a larger specimen before cutting or dividing.

Brooke

[james mickelso]

cutting "halfway" through encourages the pbulbs to induce latent buds to start growing without impeding the transfer of starches and water to the newer pbulbs as would cutting all the way through the rizome. cutting halfway through in no way jeopardizes the orchids ability to continue to grow as one plant. this is not like dividing the plant and anyway this is not a young plant.

[Brooke]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

cutting "halfway" through encourages the pbulbs to induce latent buds to start growing without impeding the transfer of starches and water to the newer pbulbs as would cutting all the way through the rizome. cutting halfway through in no way jeopardizes the orchids ability to continue to grow as one plant. this is not like dividing the plant and anyway this is not a young plant.

I agree it will not stop the Catt from exchanging some nourishment from the pbulbs but what it will do is force a young plant to grow new eyes instead of concentrating on creating new and stronger growths.

What happens is the new forced growths may not get as big as a new growth should, might keep it from blooming until another new growth or two is produced. Or if it does bloom, the number of blooms may be reduced to singleton blooms.

Visually I am guessing the Catt is in a 4" pot because I can see the seedling size pbulbs. To me this is not a big plant. Perhaps Monet can enlighten us on the container size.

Everyone knows a specimen sized Catt will produce more blooms per growth because of all the stored energy in the non-blooming pbulbs.

I have used your cut method when I want to divide a big Catt when the time is right for the division. I can't use your half cut method because I show my Catts and AOS and their judges will not consider a plant that has been manipulated. Anyone who doesn't want to show can do anything they want with their orchids but I always want the biggest bang I can get from my 'chids.

My C. loddegesii was awarded this past week-end with a CCM/HCC/AOS. All of the non-blooming pbulbs permitted this Catt to produce many blooms per growth. IMHO if Monet's Catt is cut now, it will be years before she can expect a display of this type.


C loddigesii 'CCM-HCC-AOS' JCL_1391 by kentucky4, on Flickr

Brooke

[james mickelso]

Congrats on the awards. Nice plant. But when I use the method I get new growths from the older pbulbs and flowers out of most of them. It doesn't affect the number of flowers per pbulb either. As each pbulb grows it stores energy for that pbulbs flowers and if culture is correct it will produce enough roots to supply itself and any other pbulbs downstream of it. Here's a pic of what I mean. This catt started with some older pbulbs and one new pbulb. I cut halfway through the rizome between each pbulb trying to get the dormant buds to push and after two years (which is how long it takes each pbulb to puish flowers) this is what I got. This may not be up to AOS standards but looks awsome on the table.

[katrina]

Brooke -- WHOA! Stunning loddi!! And a BIG congrats on the award.

James - the catt looks young to me too...it appears to have only had the one bloom. I don't understand your reasoning behind telling her to cut the rhizome. It's a good looking, and healthy looking plant...why bother it? Why not just let it do it's thing? Why risk opening it up to pathogens if there isn't a critical or crucial reason for cutting? Just curious.