Cattleya pseudobulbs

[plumania]

I would like to know the secret for getting pseudobulbs to grow taller (not talking about minis or short varieties).
Do plants with taller pseudobulbs bloom better too?

I see nurseries are able to grow them tall and so do many growers on the forum.
I do not have a greenhouse or ability to control temps/humidity etc.I grow mine outside in basket/clay pots with many holes.Mine somehow do not reach same length/height.

Is it nitrogen or something else ?
I would like to learn to grow my Cattleyas taller.

[Brooke]

What are the names of the Catts you are growing?

Growing a Catt in shadier conditions will make the plant reach for additional light. Also not all Catts have tall pbulbs or grow straight up, some are sprawlers in their growth habit.

Brooke

[tucker85]

I agree with Brooke that there's a natural limit to how tall any particular orchid will get. But culture does have an affect on height. Proper light, fertilizer and water will produce the best growth. Large cattleyas with lots of pseudo-bulbs and lots of good healthy roots will produce taller pseudo-bulbs each year until they reach the maximum height for that particular plant. In South Florida, where you live, cattleyas start growing strongly in April. So in April you want to start fertilizing once a week. Watering will depend on your pots and the media you grow in. What kind of media do you use? What kind of pots do you use? and what kind of fertilizer do you use? Also do you belong to one of our local orchid societies?

[dounoharm]

growing cattleyas in a greenhouse is like optimum conditions....I don't think you can possibly duplicate that at home....

[isurus79]

Tall bulbs are less important than fat bulbs. Tall bulbs on a short species mean you have too little light or some other culture problem. Fat bulbs mean culture is juuust right.

Originally Posted by dounoharm

growing cattleyas in a greenhouse is like optimum conditions....I don't think you can possibly duplicate that at home....

I will politely disagree with this statement.

[plumania]

Apologies for a long answer but I am trying to answer all the questions while explaining what I have and what I want-

I can give examples of a couple of Cattleya but I have too many to list.
For example Lc CG Roebling Gaskelliana coerulea. It is a tallish catt, at least when I bought it. But regardless of sun, mine never grew such tall p bulbs. I did get 2 spikes and they bloomed. Pseudobulbs grew fatter and shorter in my care and they are greenish yellow or yellowish green so theu got enough sun.
Other example is a shorter(presumably) variety C Jose Marti Mother's Favorite. I see pictures with pseudobulbs looking much taller than mine and they bloom well. Since I got mine mid last year, it has grown several plump pseudobulbs but I do not know if it will bloom or how well it will bloom....yet. This one blooms in spring.
I saw huge specimen of B. Yellow Bird at the Ft Lauderdale orchid show and they also had Dendrobium spectabile and another yellow orange flowered brassavola hybrid that really made me think about this because mine are small plants and have small pseudobulbs( I have been growing only for appx 1.5 yr, and they bloomed so what else do I expect).Eventually they will get bigger and I would like to grow them to nice size.

Fertilizer- I use Ray's K Lite most of the time, diluted ,every 1-2 weeks and occasionally some sea weed (very very dilute) or Bloom booster for chids with middle number 35(from Lowes).
We get a lot of humidity in summers. Roots are growing well on all my plants .
Some are in wood baskets and some in clay pots with holes.
Media is mostly Hydroton/Lava rock/Charcoal/few pieces of orchid bark -in both containers.
I have real problem driving in dark. Most orchid societies meet at a time when it would be too dark for me to drive.Hence I have not joined any local societies yet. I am a member of AOS now and read their magazine and I learn a lot by googling and from this forum. I know this can not compensate for real learning at the society meetings but I do not want to risk driving in dark .

My question is simple, may be I did not put it out right before.

1. How do I get taller pseudobulbs on the ones that are capable of making those (evident from nursery growers, people who put their plants in orchid shows or the ones shown here at times etc ).
Please help me understand if there is a particular fertilizer/water temp/regimen to help achieve taller pseudobulbs. What is the secret?

Is there any plant steroids they use ,like some body builders do? Just kidding, but you get what I am trying to ask.

2. Do taller pseudobulbs increase chances of blooming on any pseudobulb or give more flowers per spike? I understand that tall or fat pseudobulbs would not get plant to bloom at odd times.

[tucker85]

My personal opinion is that taller pseudo-bulbs don't necessarily bloom any better than shorter pseudo-bulbs. Large, well established cattleyas with lots of pseudo-bulbs will usually bloom better than younger or smaller plants. Individual hybrids usually have a maximum number of flowers that bloom on each pseudo-bulb. If you know that a certain hybrid can have three flowers per spike and you're only getting one or two then you may have a culture issue. If you're getting some pseudo-bulbs with the maximum number of flowers for that kind of hybrid, then your culture is probably fine even if the pseudo-bulbs are shorter. I know that K lite is a popular fertilizer but it's also experimental. Two tried and true fertilizers for growing outdoors in South Florida are Southern Ag 16-3-16 6Ca 3Mg, which is carried by Broward Orchid Supply or Peters Excel 15-5-15 Ca,Mg. Starting in April, fertilize your orchids once a week, rain or shine. If it's not raining in the spring, start watering cattleyas in baskets about three times a week. Right now, in the winter, you can fertilize and water less than that.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by plumania

1. How do I get taller pseudobulbs on the ones that are capable of making those (evident from nursery growers, people who put their plants in orchid shows or the ones shown here at times etc ).
Please help me understand if there is a particular fertilizer/water temp/regimen to help achieve taller pseudobulbs. What is the secret?

No secret, just grow your plants well and they'll reach maximum size. Having 4N plants often greatly increases the size of plant too. A lot of the huge show plants are 4N.

Originally Posted by plumania

2. Do taller pseudobulbs increase chances of blooming on any pseudobulb or give more flowers per spike? I understand that tall or fat pseudobulbs would not get plant to bloom at odd times.

In short, no, there is no connection between height of plant and blooms. Fat bulbs are more likely to give you better flowers. Again.....fat bulbs are more important to getting better blooms than plant height.

I have seen Catts that grow shorter in drier conditions (ie. mounted) than when grown fairly wet. As said previously, Catts grown in low light conditions will often stretch to get more light, but obviously this is not what you want.

[plumania]

Thanks a lot guys. What an educational experience!

Tucker,I will try getting the fertilizer you mentioned.
I bought 2 bottles of K lite, I will use it up on various plants once I get Southern Ag or Peters.
Actually I was about to buy Southern Ag twice in past, but they had it in clear bags and I could see it was wet from moisture. Wondering whether fertilizer goes bad when that happens..

4N plant....I will have to look into it. I see some 4Ns and colchicine treated plants advertised and was wondering what that is about. Now you mentioned it so I searched and found this old thread-

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...s-4n-mean.html

I feel like a kid in Disney world going on an exploration in my boat/track car ......you know one of those fairy tale/adventure exhibits we look at with amazement, when we were little.

All this is new stuff to me and I am excited I learned about it.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart, to all of you.

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by plumania

Thanks a lot guys. What an educational experience!

Tucker,I will try getting the fertilizer you mentioned.
I bought 2 bottles of K lite, I will use it up on various plants once I get Southern Ag or Peters.

One way to switch fertilizers without wasting money is to buy the new one and alternate between the K lite and the new fertilizer, each time you fertilize, until you've used up your old fertilizer.