Brown leaves and shrivelled bulbs on Cattleya.
 

Hello everyone,

Could someone help me identify the problem on my Cattleya? I bought this plant a year ago down in Florida. About a month ago, I noticed the center of leaves started to turn brown and the bulbs started to shrivel up. Is it a virus/bacteria problem? Or is it a cultural problem?
The other cattleyas in my collection are doing just fine.

I live in the Northeast so I grow my orchids indoor under light during the cold months. I have the light on for 12-13 hours per day. The humidity is around 40%. I water and fertilize(weakly) most of my orchids every two weeks.
Thank, :)


Thanks.

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First, Welcome!

There could be a bacterial/fungal issue going on, but if so it a symptom of something else... Question, hard to be sure from the photo, but is that sphagnum in the basket? If so, it could be the culprit, keeping things too wet... Catts do need to dry out. So I wonder about the state of the roots in the middle of the basket. If you lose roots, you'll get shriveling of the pseudobulbs because the plant can't take up the water you're providing. How does this one compare with the medium/pot environment of your other Catts?

Hi Roberta,
Thank you for your quick response. Yes. That Cattleya is in the basket with sphagnum moss. I watered all the plants every two weeks. Those photos were taken after I watered them this morning.
Another Catts right next to this one, also in a basket no sphagnum moss, is doing fine and so are the other plants in the same grow area.
Is there anything I can do to save it? I could remove the moss.

Catts are tough... I'd suggest removing the moss. I expect that you'll soon see new growth - which will produce new roots. In the meantime, it will run on reserves - those pseudobulbs, which may shrivel somewhat. Not a problem... once you have roots, the new growths will be OK. You could spray some Physan on it to maybe slow down any infection, but the surface treatment is really not very effective. Just letting it dry out will probably have the same result. At this point, just patience. If it looks like it is deteriorating further, you can take it out of the basket and remove mushy roots and pseudobulbs. But if you can possibly wait for new growth, that would be preferable - the best time for repotting is when new roots are just getting started.

ok Thanks

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Sphagnum works well for Cattleyas in very warm climates. In cooler winters it can stay wet too long and suffocate roots. Your plant looks like it hasn't been getting enough water. That can happen from not watering enough, or from poor roots. Your other plants are fine so I think you're watering appropriately. This one won't make more roots until it starts growing again, so it won't look good for a while.

Thank you

Growing Catts in sphagnum is an interesting choice although because you are only watering every other week, maybe it's working OK for you.

Without having the advantage of being able to put my hands on it, it appears that newer roots growing over the top of the moss are OK but I would venture a guess that the main cluster of roots in the middle have been suffocated by the moss which has caused the distressed state of the plant. The nice roots on top are showing you they need air!

If it was mine, I'd get it out of there, clean off all the dead roots and severely damaged parts of the plant, hit it with dip n grow rooting hormone and put it in a bark mixed with a little sphag, sponge rock and charcoal until it recovers with new growth.

Totally agree. Take the orchid out of there in order to check the roots toward the middle of the pot ----- in the depths of the sphagnum.

If the roots are all soggy and dead and mushy in there ------ then that will most likely mean roots not being able to handle the the low oxygen level of water iin the media.

I was a bit reluctant at first to answer this thread since I grow my cattleya's very different to most people. But my Cattleya's are thriving more than most my other orchids and I attribute it to two things.

1. Cattleya drink more than any other same sized orchid I have so I provide a lot of water

2. Too much moisture in the pot can suffocate roots - this can make growing Cattleya a bit challenging as they need lots of water but cannot handle lots of water staying in the pot for too long.

Watering once every 2 weeks is recipe for failure. If you look at the pseudobulbs they are all shrivelled. So to the question whether it is virus/bacteria problem or a cultural problemI would say cultural.

The plant is not receiving enough water but as is if you were to increase watering the roots will rot.

There are lots of ways to achieve an airy media that stays damp all the time - that is what I try to achieve growing Cattleya. I never let my Cattleya dry out as they drink so much. But I never let my pots get too wet so the roots can rot.
I find Cattleya roots are actually quite resilent to rot but because the plants drink a lot more than a phalaenopsis for example they need to be kept wetter and this can cause rot.

Historically growers would water their plants more regularly, bareroot Cattleya's need to be watered every single day or they dry out.

There are ways to not have to water every single day like semi-hydro, self watering pots and automatic rain misting systems but once every 2 weeks is just not going to work.