Help needed with Cattleya
 

Got this Catt a few weeks ago, with buttons. It flowered fine, but the blooms didn't last as long as I expected, only a few days. After they dropped, the plant started to look a little sad, so I decided to take it out of its pot to see what was going on.
Pretty much all of its roots had rotted away - I had to trim off all but a couple of little stubs. The new growths you see in the photos were white when I removed it from its pot, they had been totally buried.
I left it out of the media, and was soaking it for an hour or so every day in water and once a week with SuperThrive. After 2 weeks I potted it up in white lava rock, but continued with the 1-2 hour soakings every day.
The photos you see here are from today. I noticed a bit of fungus on one of the new growths, so treated it with Captan. The new growths are now green (and have grown slightly), but there is still no new root growth. And the leaves are starting to look very dehydrated.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...f4db2c32c3.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...81e448db52.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...715f9de5ce.jpg

How should I proceed from here? I'm at a bit of a loss...


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I suspect too much water. How was your watering regime before you've noticed the problem?

I agree, probably too much water.

Place the plants in an unglazed terracotta pot with no medium. If the plants want to tip over, you may need to tie the rhizomes to something heavy in the bottom of the pot.

Place the pot in a shaded location. Wet the inside of the pot once a day, preferably early in the morning. This is to provide some humidity. If the plant is strong enough, it will send out new roots.

Cattleyas dislike soaklng. They prefer to become nearly dry in between watering. Longer soaks will kill roots.

I water mine every 7 to 10 days, if it's dry... if not, I wait a little longer. I soak it because there are a lot of big voids in the medium. This way water can reach all spaces.
Then I wait a few minutes, drain the excess water and then put my fingers in contact with the holes in the pot bottom. Remaining water, by means of surface tension, is "sucked" from inside the pot.

How interesting. I had mine on trays, and I watered them every day, twice a day in the summer, and they developed root mats that were half a metre long.

I bought mine last autumn so I don't know how the summer will be. Most probably I'll need to water it every two days or so, too.

Ours are watered once or twice a week, depending on temperatures. They're all in pumice/lava rock, and due to the high temperatures and low humidity here, very frequent watering is necessary. All are doing really well. This one came potted up in what looked like a terrestrial mix which stayed wet for a very long time (after I bought it I didn't need to water it for over 2 weeks) , which I would guess was a large part of the problem. Judging from the extent of the root damage, I'd also guess that the rot had started a long time before we took ownership of the plant.

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Agree! I believe you've touched the real issue.:)

Yep, doubt I'm gonna be using that supplier again any time soon.

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I suspect some questionably healthy plants were stuck into pots with some potting soil some time before you got them.

Certainly seems that way... I've been speaking with another local supplier/friend who has sourced several plants from this nursery recently - she, too, has been resoundingly underwhelmed - poorly potted plants, deliveries of damaged plants, plants supposedly in button arriving with the final flower wilting... SO crossed off my list now. Crazy thing is that a year or so ago they were one of the most reputable orchid nurseries in the country. :mad:

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If you haven't already, I'd definitely let the nursery know how the plants have been. It may very well be that they have new help or themselves have recently switched suppliers. By no means meant as an excuse, but when a nursery has had a solid rep in the past, I like to give them a chance to take action on their end.
Just my 2¢,
Adam


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As long as the water doesn't stop air getting to the roots, and there is good drainage, I don't think you can overwater them.

Your plant still have a good chance to recover as i can see some good eyes start poking its way out. Just remember to keep high humidity.

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Over the years, I have gotten many Cattleyas in the same state (or, recently, due to trying LECA, created this sort of mess). What I do is fill a pot up with red lava rock/basket pot and stake/wire the Cattleya on top of the rock. You want the new roots to start above the rock and grow down into it (the rock is rough so this keeps them from harm). I water the rock (no roots so the water helps with the humidity) when I water the rest. When the roots hold the orchid firm, I remove the stakes/wire, usually in autumn.
The ones that are currently recovering are just starting new growths and some of the new growths already are starting roots. Now that it is finally going to be warm, the Cattleyas should really start to grow.
Captan is a great product (we use it for the fruit trees) and to keep the Cattleyas healthy, adding Calcium helps.
Good luck!

I'm packing up my orchids and moving in with you. I'll need ur address, u can pm it to me if you don't feel comfortable posting it on the open forum :rofl:

Sometimes roots can rot quicky. I got a package of a catt I ordered off Ebay and I could not believe how heavy it was. They had watered where the media was saturated/ heavy then shockingly shipped it. The plant had beautiful roots that were all starting to breakdown during shipping. I always repot, so luckily I saved it.

Thanks for all the advice guys... Think I'm gonna go with the terracotta pot method, simply because it sounds slightly less labour-intensive. I'll let you know the progress as and when there is any. Would you recommend a quick dip in super thrive once a week?

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Update: just over 24 hours in terracotta in the shade, and already seeing 2 root nubs on the smaller division! http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...c12a8032f8.jpg
Thanks for the help, I think this one's salvageable!

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That is the life cycle of the plant. Do not disturb plant, neglect.
Many people believe that if a cattleya is potted should be treated like any ordinary plant, is an illusion imposed by visual memory.