Cattleya with failure to thrive?

[lizdt]

Hi, all! I'm so excited to be here! I am a moderately experienced gardener, but very new to orchids. I was given a cattleya in early March 2010 and it simply doesn't seem to be going anywhere, and I worry it is slowly dying for some reason. Here are the details; I'd appreciate any advice you can give me!

In March, it had several orange blooms, which fell off after about a month.
Water: I had been watering it every two weeks, and fertilizing it at the waterings with 20-14-13 fertilizer, at a concentration of a teaspoon per gallon water.
Light: It is on a bathroom shelf, moderate indirect sunlight through a frosted bathroom window, and a "sunlight" light bulb in the bathroom.
Pot: Clay, sitting in a dish of pebbles with water under them. Originally in a bark medium (but I repotted it later in moss I soaked to rehydrate).

A gardener I know told me not to worry, as it was just probably done blooming and was going dormant, and not to repot it for another month or so to give its metabolism time to slow before shocking it. I sprinkled cinnamon on the sites where the blooms fell off.

When I finally repotted the plant, it had a lot of root rot, so I brushed off all the old bark and cut off the squishy brown and green roots, leaving very few roots, but they looked good.

Since then, there's been no new growth, one leaf tip turned black and i trimmed it off, a yellow spot is starting on another, and there are still a small number of roots, white or tan.

Basically, he just looks sickly (see pics) to me, but I might be overreacting. Is he just dormant or sick? Thoughts? Again, this plant is very important to me, but I know I'm new to it and want to do it right. Thanks for your time!

Liz

[WhiteRabbit]

Hi liz!

The plant looks ok, I think, - some do go a while before starting new growth. Catts generally like to dry out in-between waterings. I have bamboo skewers in all my pots to help determine when to water. Since they do like to dry most people pot in less moisture retentive media than sphag - tho people do grow them in sphag as well. If your plant didn't have a lot of good roots, a smaller pot might be in order. Also media in a smaller pot will dry faster. The problem with sphag - at least for me in a rather dry climate - is the top portion, as well as outer perimeter of media will be bone dry- but the center can still be quite wet.

Catts also generally require a good deal of light to bloom, so I'm not sure if yours is getting enough.

I'm sure others will chime in - welcome to the board

[lizdt]

Thanks! Good advice to start with!

Liz

[Eyebabe]

The most important thing about growing catts in my opinion is the ability for the roots to dry out quickly.
In a non-greenhouse setting, I would not recommend the Sphag even if you are using a clay pot.
I would try a course bark mix or Aussie Gold large; although currently, I am changing out most of my catts to PrimeAgra.
When you repot, trim all the dead roots off and presoak your potting mix in a rooting solution like K-L-N.
Furthermore, your plant should be getting a lot more light with good air circulation...not something I associate with a "bottom shelf" location.
Most catts need about 3000 candles of bright indirect light for at least 6 hours per day. Use a humidifier as well is your humidity if less than 50%.
Finally, DO let your plant dry out pretty completely between watering and DO NOT use fertilizer for now. I think the solution you have been using is a bit too strong, and you need root growth. I'd put KLN in my water before fertilizer for now and only every third or so watering until the roots start. When you get some good roots and want to fertilize, decrease the frequency of feeding and your solution should be more like 10-10-10.
Your water should be low in salts so distilled water or water processed through an RO system is best.

With a plant kind of fading away like yours is, you also need to be concerned about a fungal or bacterial infection....Physan 20 is a general anti-bacterial/anti-fungal and it might be worth while to treat.

Catts are very resilient and with these changes, if no infection is present, it will grow pretty for you again

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

How are the roots? Did you take a look at them recently?

Did you say you cut the green roots? Why cut green roots? Those are the ones you want. Unless you mean the roots have algae growing on them. Epiphytical orchids have green roots because they can photosynthesize.

Is the root mass really as large as that pot? If not, move the plant to a smaller pot. A pot that fits the root mass. And if it doesn't have any, mount it.

That doesn't look like real moss. It looks like "Spanish Moss", which is not moss at all, it is a miniature bromeliad (Tillandsia usneoides). I wouldn't bother trying to grow the mini-bromeliad, they're most likely dead.

Catts also like bright indirect light. If the light casts a fairly strong shadow, that's how much.

It should've broken dormancy already.

[trdyl]

Liz, Welcome to OB!

Don't give up on it. I been growing catts for a long time. A few of years ago I did get one bare root division that had no viable roots finally after about 6 months it started growing again. Your pot is way too large.

As Philip said don't cut off green firm roots. Only trim back the dead portions. I can not see ther rhizome. I hope it is not buried. If it is you need to get it up on top of the medium. As for selecting the proper pot size you sould only give enough room for up to two years growth. Any more than that you run the risk of root rot due to medium break down before the plant has out grown its pot.

[lizdt]

Thanks for all of the advice, everyone! Here is my plan for my catt, "Seymour."
Due to a lack of shelves and the presence of cats who like to knock plants over, I've decided (after looking for some ideas on this board!) to mount Seymour to a window with eastern-southern exposure, using a SMALL suction-cup plastic shower caddy. I'll repot him in a bark medium and use K-L-N in lieu of fertilizer for a while to get his roots going (though when I dug out the rhizome a bit, they are regrowing from the earlier rot!) I'll also start watering him using water from the Brita filter, in case my tap water has too many salts that are yellowing his leaves.

So here's where I need help:

1. How do I prepare the bark medium for repotting? (Do I soak it in water, or in the K-L-N?)
2. What's the best way to apply the K-L-N?
3. What should my watering schedule be once I repot him?
4. How long should it take before I see new growth, to know that these changes have been good for him?

(Note, I can't do the repotting till the end of this week, because I had to order all the supplies over the internet and am waiting to receive them.)

Thanks again, keep the wisdom coming!

Liz

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

You can soak the potting media (bark) in a solution of K-L-N.

How often you water will depend on the amount of air the plant is receiving and how humid it is. You can always check to see if the pseudobulbs are shriveling. To test things out, you can always water less and increase the frequency of watering over a period of time.

When you do another repot, unless the roots are sprawling out of the pot in every direction, only change out the medium and return into the same size pot. So that would mean, if the roots have overgrown the pot, (which I think it should in about a year), then by all means, increase the size of the pot to match the size of the root mass.

One potting option would be to use clear plastic pots. It allows you to see things in the root zone. It allows the roots of epiphytical orchids to photosynthesize. It helps you get a grasp on when to water next. This is especially helpful for those orchids that love water, but can still develop root rot if they're over watered.

[Eyebabe]

Repotme.com has a video on how to repot an orchid which many of us feel is helpful.
Mix about one tsp KLN with one gallon of distilled water and shake well. Put your coarse bark orchid mix into a bowl and pour the KLN/water into the bowl and soak your media overnight.
The following day, pull your plant out of its pot. You may need to soak the roots it to loosen the old media.
Cut old dead roots and treat with some Physan 20.
Put your orchid in the smallest possible pot leaving enough space for about one new growth.
Tap your prepared bark mix in around the roots (like the video shows )
Discard any unused media.
Viola!