Cattleya help please!

[jneal10]

My cattleya started looking pretty unhappy recently. I got it May in bloom. I was that there were two new leaves growing so I transplanted it to a bigger pot a few months ago. About a weak or so it started doing this! (photos). One new sprout fell off, one leaf turned brown and fell off and now another. I water it about once a weak with fertilizer. I put in the sink and run a gallon of water with fertilizer through it and let it drip out. I dug up some roots and they are all looking dry but when the first brown leaf fell I squeezed it and it was pretty wet inside. I have no idea what to do and it looks like it's just going to die

[kindrag23]

I would cut the dead cane and any other dead and or dying material with it. Just to be on the safe side. Then I would use a anti fungal/ anti bacterial on it to be safe. It looks like maybe infection may have hit it.

I also can't say definitively but looks like possible black rot.

I have since found out that cattleya orchids like extra doses of magnesium and calcium supplements. It helps with immune support in most all orchids.

[orchids44]

Looks like scale to me. The last pict of the pseudobulb that's almost horizontal has brown looking scale. Just my I use Bayer 3in1 or Sevin spray. Both are available at Home Depot. Cattleyas are especially prone to soft and armoured scale. Good luck.

[james mickelso]

This orchid is just drowning. That's all. It's in too large a pot and never dries out. Catts like to be watered and then left to dry out completely. But with all that media that is difficult to do. Pot up catts so that the roots just fit into the pot. Crowded is ok. These are also old pbulbs with growth buds at the base of the old pbulbs. I thought I saw one new growth. The old sheaths need to be cleaned off the pbulbs. I use tweezers and an old stiff toothbrush. My suggestion is to take this out of the bark, clean all the old sheaths off the pbulbs, get some long fiber sphagnum moss, place the plant is a small pot and very loosely cover the roots with the moss. Just wad up a bit of moss and push it down into the root mass. Do this until the roots have some moss loosely around them. And I mean loosely. You'll need to make a plant clip to hold the plant upright in the pot. I have a picture around here somewhere. Maybe someone can find it and post the pics. Wet the moss lightly and then let it dry out before putting anymore water on it. This plant doesn't need humidity or food. Just leave it alone except for keeping the moss just barely damp. You should see bud growth this spring or maybe a little sooner. If you can keep it warm like 80*f that will also help.

[tucker85]

I agree with James, the pot is way too big. Use the smallest pot that the roots will comfortably fit in with just enough room for one new pseudo-bulb to grow. I don't use sphagnum. I prefer large bark or LECA (rock medium) or a mixture. The medium should completely dry out within a day or so and stay dry for another day or two before watering again. You don't need to fertilize every time you water. This time of year the orchid doesn't need a lot of fertilizer. During the summer, when the plant is actively growing, you can water more often and fertilize regularly. When you repot, use a toothbrush, like James said, to remove all the old dead material covering the pseudo-bulbs. To tell you the truth, I think that plant is probably too far gone to recover, but it's worth a try.

[dounoharm]

oh gosh, I agree totally with james and tucker...its DROWNED! there could be someday recovery, but its iffy...it is way too overpotted, and probably hasn't completely dried out if you watered that once a week....I don't like sphagnum either...I use very large bark chunks with some charcoal and perlite mixed in...and I pack the media very tight in the pot with cattleyas as well....they like the stability...if you can get it in the pot tight enough to hold the plant up, by the plant not the pot, and the pot doesn't fall off you have done a good job...if not then use a pot clip...this plant looks sunburned as well...but I don't think it has had enough light...looking at the weak new growth....maybe try a more filtered spot for it? shady is fine....no orchid needs blazing sunlight, even though cats are big sun-lovers...trim all the dead leaves, roots, and gunk off the plant...pot it with damp medium and don't water it for two weeks...then I think probably about every ten days might work...also, while it is healing/making new growth, it doesn't need as much light as a healthy mature plant would take...good luck!

[Orchid Whisperer]

Agree with previous assessments. Way too big a pot, never an opportunity to dry completely between watering.

I have been able to recover completely rootless and leafless pseudobulbs (back bulbs) of Cattleya alliance plants before. The method James gave may work. Sometimes I have just set the back bulbs into an empty terra cotta pot and watered the pot occasionally (works best in the sumer outdoors). But, this was with otherwise healthy canes (and the brown on yours suggests a disease process going on). I would agree with Kindra that cutting out the diseased material would normally help (if that leaves you with any plant left to recover; recovery may be difficult as Tucker says).

I am not seeing the scale problem to orchis44 is seeing, but maybe her eyes are better than mine.

[jneal10]

Well at the orchid nursery I bought my other plant I was told that it is important to be consistent with the fertilizer and that I could fertilize with every watering once a week. I thought the pot was too big too but I read somewhere that the circumference of the pot should be about as big as far as the new growths reach and this is what I chose. I do have a smaller pot I can put it in. I would however check before every watering that the bark was dry as far as I could dig in with my fingers. I live in New Mexico and it's dry here, especially in the winter.

[james mickelso]

You can use the same strategy in NM as elsewhere. Keep the orchid warm and water it as needed. But the orchid should not stay wet. If it is completely dry on day 3 or 4 then water it. But the orchid should dry well before you water it again. It doesn't need fertilizer now. It needs patience and lioght. Not direct sunlight but fairly bright light. I have even wrapped an old pseudobulb in sphagnum moss and hung it on a wire. Just wet the moss and then let dry off. I watered it every two or three days and it grew another pbulb within a few months. I don't have the pics anymore but the older members might remember that experiment. I still have the catt and it's growing well. So warmth, wet/dry, and light. Good luck.

[jneal10]

I do have another unconfirmed suspicion. All this started kind of around the time that I busted our newly acquired kitten digging in the bark in this orchid. I couldn't smell anything but she did pee in another plant in a big pot (that I could smell). I don't know, maybe just a coincidence.