Snow mold

[ScottMcC]

sortof. I majored in biochem in undergrad, and just finished my MD a few weeks ago. but my wife is in her 5th year of her biochem PhD. So there's still lots of biochem in the family.

I'm gonna go straight "by the book" for the s/h, at least at first. I'll keep you posted as to how it goes.

[Tindomul]

Congrats on you MD. Sounds like it was well deserved!

[ScottMcC]

next update: supplies have arrived. rinsed the prime-agra with tap water, then put it in a bucket with 1 tsp/gallon KLN. will divide and pot the catt tonight.

[ScottMcC]

repotting update:

soaked the plant in 1 T/gallon physan, then unpotted. turned out to be a bigger pain that I thought due to adherent roots, so I went ahead and just cut the pot in half with a utility knife. worked great.

Once inside, I discovered that the problem was worse than I had thought--the media was almost completely decomposed, such that roots could only grow into the top 1/3-1/2 of the pot because it was so dense below that. but the roots actually looked relatively good to my novice eyes--thick, firm, pliable. So I didn't have to trim too many roots, although I did have to cut through a bunch to divide it. Division turned into more of a problem than I had hoped too...ended up making 3 divisions, then putting them into 2 pots just because of where the cuts lined up. But both pots have several new growths in them, some of which I didn't even know about before repotting because they were hiding amongst this overcrowded plant.

Cleaning the roots was a big pain, because there was a lot of rotting bark in between all of them, but I worked slowly and kept washing the plant off with water and it seemed to go ok.

Actually potting them was relatively simple: just hold the plant roughly in place and use the other hand to scoop primeagra on top, then shake it until it settles, repeating until it's full. I then topped them off with a bit of water and called it a night.

Pictures are here: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ry.php?cat=521

If you go to my gallery via the button in my signature, you can also see a "before" picture of the big plant a few weeks ago when it was in flower.

[Tindomul]

Very cool pics. It helps us all out.
How much of a setback to the plant do you think it will cause after cutting the roots? I'm always afraid of killing them if I cut the roots.

[Oscarman]

As long as the plant is in good condition and active growth, set back should be minimal.

Great info and pictures Scott. Thanks for the update. BTW, what is the Catt that you repotted?

[ScottMcC]

It's Laeliocattleya Ken Stromsland 'Eric' (Arlene Marie x Hausermann's Pride). Great fragrance too!

I didn't end up cutting many viable roots...just trimmed a few soggy tips until I could see green, and made the minimum number of cuts to make the division, so hopefully it won't set the plant back too much. I'm hopeful that this will actually kick start this plant since the potting media was so badly decomposed.

A lesson I learned from this is that when you buy an orchid, you should ask when it was last repotted. This one had gone way too long from what I can tell.

[cb977]

Scott...thank you so much for the in-depth information. This site has just become an even better place
Congrats on your MD...that's quite an accomplishment

[cb977]

I got my clear pots today and separated which plants were going into new pots and new prime agra (which isn't coming till tomorrow), and which are just getting a revitalization with new medium and clear pots.
Out of about 14 plants that I did today with bark, 3 of them had the beginnings of mold happening down under!

I gave them the TLC they were asking for and begged for forgiveness so hopefully, they'll be fine. The root systems I found were mind-boggling! Thick, long beautiful healthy roots that came so close to being damaged!
I can hardly wait to see what I find when I tackle the rest

[lyn]

I have some recently deflasked seedlings growing in sphagnum. They are getting a fuzzy (mold?) here and there. Should I worry about thes? The seedlings look fine!