Cattleya with no roots

[Bodil88]

My Cattleya losts its roots due to snails. If there is any hope for survival please tell me what to do

[Roberta]

First, Welcome!

Cattleyas are better equipped than some other types of orchids when there is root loss since they have pseudobulbs that can store water to keep the plant alive while it is working on growing new ones. A photo would definitely help in the diagnosis and advice for treatment. Some have said that one needs 5 posts to upload photos, but I have see it work for other new members. Under the "Go Advanced" option, you will see a link for "Manage Attachments", that is where you will upload photos. Another approach is to upload your photos to a "cloud" folder, give necessary permissions and get a link, include the link in your reply.

[Bodil88]

Thank you very much Roberta. I am 88 and not very Cleveland when it comes to down loading pictures, but I will find some bidt to help me. The poor Catt simply had aaNO ROOTS. While on the subject of snails what do you know about getting rid of them fir good. On tha plants where I cannot see the roots and where the plant seems OK I am trying to Blair any snails with pieces of are potato. Does that seem reasonable to you?

[Roberta]

Did you see snails in the pot? Or slugs? (How are you sure that it was snails?) You could try dunking the plant, pot and all, into a bucket of water with a some dish soap added. Root-eating creatures will try to escape and you will see them. ("Bush snails" are tiny and they do eat roots. But this approach will bring them out of hiding). Before prescribing a treatment, though, it is important to be sure that you know what pest you are actually treating.

[Bodil88]

Yes, I saw a snail and I saw how the roots www chewed all over the place. How long should the plant be submerged and approximerer how much dish soap Per gal.? Thanks for all the time you are devotinh to my snails

[Roberta]

A few drops of dish soap should be sufficient.

Also, if the orchid's pot is infested, the "cure" likely will be helped by repotting into fresh medium. Do you have other plants? Do you grow it outside or inside?

[Bodil88]

I grow inside in a smallish apartment with a huge ‘glass wall’ facing due east in Portland OR. Four other plants also had snails. I grow in LEVA so I de-potted them, three all medium, Cut away all dead roots which amounted to 99% on one plant and 100% on the others. I sprayes all all over with hydrogen p. and now I am Reading to proceed. I placed raw potato pieces on ALL plants last night and this AM no sign of snails. All my plants grow in clear pots and I notced the snail damage by noticing the ‘brutalized’ roots. It happened very fast. I usually inspect all plants once a week when I water/fertilize and it was an ugly surprize.How long should they soak? Again: Thank you so much

[Roberta]

Hydrogen peroxide is quite useless against snails... but it can damage roots. If you have snails, use snail bait (with metaldehyde) if you don't have pets around (it is toxic to pets) or an iron phosphate product like Sluggo, which is less toxic.

Also, if you "captured" the snails - big enough to see and dispatch - you may have already solved the issue with the repot. But if you have the little tiny bush snails, which can look like little flying saucers) the snail baits don't work but coffee grounds do.

The soak, I think that anything that wants to escape will do so in a half hour or so.

As far as encouraging new roots, Kelpmax (sold by Ray, who you can find on the Board in the Classified sub-forum) has been found, by a number of members including myself, as being useful to encourage root growth.

Good luck! Hopefully, other contributors will also jump in with suggestions. (One thing that was very confusing is that you give your location as Copenhagen, Denmark, which doesn't track with the US flag location icon, or your stated location of Portland, OR... you can modify your profile under the User CP tap, to correct this.)

[Bodil88]

Yes that Copenhagen location is confusing. When I registeret I was asked where I was born and that is CPH.
As to my present location I States OR, however it was difficult to register and I had to do it several times before it took.
One of the potato Blair pieces on a new plant had just now a VERY TINY Black creature so tiny that it was not until I got it inder the mucrofying glass that it was inkongruens. It seemed to have quite a few legs and ran around the potato piece very fast until it fell off. Sorry to be so verbose, but I don’r know anybody else who groes orchids.

[Roberta]

Can't tell what you are trying to say about what the tiny bug is... but it isn't a snail and it might be your root nibbler. Which means that snail treatments won't' work if that's not what is causing the problems. Snails, except for the tiny bush snails, usually aren't responsible for root loss (they mostly eat leaves) so the treatment will need to be tailored to the actual pest.

I think that I can fix your "location" problem. (Edit... I don't have the privileges to do it, will need to get another moderator, with Admin privileges, to do it.)