Help with baby Catasetum
 

Bought a baby catasetum After Dark at my orchid society's show last year. I messaged Fred Clark himself for some advice and one of the things he said was that he didn't think he'd let it go the whole dormancy period without water because it was too small.

I watered it a tiny amount over the dormancy period and now it's waking up. Pbulbs are a bit shrivelled but the new growths are coming in. The roots however, look very thin.

Thoughts on if I should start watering it yet or if I should follow the normal catsetum rules?

It's the fact that it's a baby is what worries me, and I can barely get the adult catasetums to function properly.

Looks fine. Let the roots develope more before really dipping in water, but I would mist it a few times a day, or, if this is not realistic, dip the bottom part of the mount into water for 10 mins. It will capillary water up to the baby. Generally, I do not let babies go dry at all in the Winter, but that mount may hold more water than is good for such a small plant, if fully soaked. As soon as the NEW roots start to really penetrate the sphagnum, water heavily and fertilize regularly.
Jamie

interesting. I've never seen catasetums grown like that so please keep us updated on progress. I hope to have a flask in the next year so studding seedlings around a mini-tower would be the perfect solution to watering and for saving space. That should also dry out rapidly which would also help. It shouldn't wobble as your plants are small yet.

What's the mount made of?

Very interesting. How big are the growths? Its tough to get a sense of size in this pic. Are these seedlings or a bit closer to being a flaskling?

The tower is as I bought it, apparently it's how their grown in China, unsure exactly.

The tower is, I believe, just a tube covered with sphagnum moss held together with fishing wire. Unsure of the tube material but it's hollow.

The old p-bulbs are about a centimeter, maybe one and a half, the new ones are like half a cm or so. Unsure about seedlings vs flasklings, but I'd assume seedlings.

Thanks for the advice :)

The bulbs look pretty fat still. I'd let them dry a bit before watering now that new growth is coming in.