Micro mini Cattleya in Sphagnum moss
 

Hey, hi everyone. I am new to the forum and relatively new to raising Cattleyas. I have a few phalaenopsis that are doing quite well in my setup. I recently received a micro mini Cattleya Slc. Little Hazel 'Red Jewel' and it is planted very tightly in sphagnum moss in a tiny mesh plug. It looks healthy, leaves are bright green and pseudobulbs are plump and smoothe, but I don’t know what is the condition of the roots. Should I repot it in lightly packed moss, transition it to bark? And should I wait to give it time to adjust to my environment?

Thanks in advance for the help!

While it is unlikely that a tight plug of moss is appropriate for your growing environment, you’d do best to wait for the emergence of new roots, which often accompanies a new growth.

The old roots won’t “transition” when placed in a new medium. Actually, they will - into mush as they fade away. If you wait for new roots before repotting, they will grow optimized for the new conditions and support the plant going forward.

In the mean time, “baby” the plant by only letting water wick up from a shallow tray, rather than doing top-down watering.

It depends on your growing conditions. Cattleya seedlings use a lot of water, and should not dry out completely. What are your temperatures and relative humidity?

I live in Atlanta and my indoor temps are in the 70s. Not sure what the temps and rel humidity are around the growing area because my thermometer recently died. My orchids are in a filtered southern facing window, lots of trees around, and I have a full spectrum grow light over them that’s on for 5 hours a day. When I bought this Cattleya, it was advertised as being ‘mature size’…since it is a micro mini, maybe it is mature size??

---------- Post added at 12:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:24 PM ----------

Thanks for the quick reply! Sounds like I should leave her alone for now.

At those temperatures it would be better not to completely soak the moss when you water. I would suggest waiting to water until the top layers of moss are crisp dry. Water by picking it up and dipping it into a bowl of water, submerging the plant and just the top of the medium. Do this for only 1-2 seconds. The top moss will get wet, and the water will diffuse through the rest of the moss, leaving it damp and still well aerated.

If it were in temperatures in the 80s-90s range I would suggest soaking the moss, but not at your temperatures.

Pix of the little gem…
 

Here are some pix, you can see just how tiny she is. And I think I see a new root…?

That plant is so small that when you repot, you should not remove any of the sphagnum. Just put it into a new pot and fill around the sphagnum root ball with new medium of your choice. Removing the sphagnum will inevitably damage those tiny roots and set back the plant.

Thank you for your advice! I will definitely keep this in mind when I do repot, though I don’t think it will be anytime soon.

Hey again - I finally got my thermometer working again in my grow area. Temps range around the mid-70s and humidity is around 45-50%.