Cats are wrinkling - Orchid Board

Ccino42 · #1 09-20-2006, 12:45 AM

Hi there,
My cats leaves and bulbs are shriveling and/or wrinkling. as well as starting to turn a bit yellow.
What could this be from?
Not enough water - light - ???

cb977 · #2 09-20-2006, 10:37 AM

Wrinkled leaves and/or bulbs are usually a sign of underwatering.

Oscarman · #3 09-20-2006, 06:48 PM

It could also be a sign of insufficient live roots to supply the moisture/nutrients required to keep the plant in a turgid state. A check of the root system is in order to rule out this problem.

How old is the media your plant is potted in? It could be broken down and causing suffocation of the roots, leading to root death and rot.

Also, some wrinkling of the pseudobulbs is to be expected if the plant is in a rest period when watering is reduced - although this does not sound like this is the case here.

Ray · #4 09-20-2006, 07:18 PM

The wrinkling is DEFINITELY a sign that the plant is not taking up water, which - as has been said - is either due to underwatering, or the plant doesn't have the roots system to do so.

The yellowing makes me put my money on the latter.

justatypn · #5 09-20-2006, 07:44 PM

Catts are tempermental at times, at least I have one that is and I have been babying this catt for a while and finally changed the medium and wow, what a difference. I did not take any of the yuckie leaves off, merely let them fall off themselves if they felt a need to part ways. The problem with mine was "the slow death" of broken down medium. I bet the later as well...hands down. Keep us posted.

ScottMcC · #6 09-20-2006, 08:45 PM

you should read this thread: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...read.php?t=641

What clued me in that there might be a problem was that a few of the leaves looked leathery, and the pseudobulbs were wrinkly, so I tried watering a little more. when that didn't help, I looked closer at the media, and found that it was severely decomposed.

luckily, I intervened in time, and my two small catts (I divided it when I repotted) are now almost as big as my original big catt, and only a few months later! the old pseudobulbs never really plumped up too much, but the newer ones definitely did.

Ccino42 · #7 09-20-2006, 08:56 PM

Thank you for all your help.
Well I have them in spag. moss not bark. The media is new , less than 3 months old. So I am guessing it is under watering.

ScottMcC · #8 09-20-2006, 10:23 PM

sphag may actually be a bad idea for catts, unless you're in a very arid climate. they prefer a more rapidly draining media than other orchids such as phals, and so you risk rotting your roots if you don't have a sufficiently airy mix.

I have a brassavola that's in nothing but sphag, but it's very loosely packed, and in a net basket to promote good air flow. so I would recommend the same if you're set on sphag, unless you're in arizona or something.

Oscarman · #9 09-20-2006, 11:52 PM

Bark or a bark mix for Cattleyas is a safe bet - unless you are already venturing into expanded clay as a medium.

.........still convinced it is root rot......

Check for firm roots with the Velamen being a whitish color......possibly with greenish tip on them. Rotten roots are grayish-brown and squash easily, often dripping water as you press them.

jags · #10 09-29-2006, 03:23 AM

My piece of thought..
Having used to growing a lot of catts..
we had this problem starting from spaghnum moss.. Usually spaghnum after a period of time starts disintegrating as well provides space for algae or sooty mould growth. Check for both in the media.
A wise thing to do will be take the plant out and remove all the media that is there to expose the live root system..
Check all roots for darkened and rotten roots and shave them off exposing only healthy new roots..
Clean all roots of all media and dip in fungicide bath..
Change root mixture to a coarder media that will allow ventilation to the roots as catt loves good ventilation to the roots. I prefer use of osmunda fibre or fern block to grow catts as they thrive in the media.. Much better than any.
i recently had a severe problem that made me lose around 10 plants most of them BLC and SLC... I had to use a powder like Neospirn to dust the rotten portion and still the bulbs had to be cut off as browning continued to invade the bulbs..
Better to keep watering when the roots are in transition to a lower level as high water also can be detterent.. Use checks to see that media dries in between. Use a spray mist to mist the plants than watering.
Use a rooting promoter to help bring new growths and if a new dormant growth matures to a new bulb you have saved the plant.
If the plant is totally in a bad conditon only way is to move to a poly bag system to revive..

Please update a picture to know what is wrong
JAGS