From bark to moss as a last resort.

[james mickelso]

This is a medium size cattleya (yeah I know) that has languished in many different media and size pots for a few years now. It would throw a pbulb every year but kept getting smaller and smaller. Then it stopped pushing buds and has sat like this for two years. The flower on this is so nice I just couldn't bring myself to discard it. So as I am so opt to do when things are just about dead, I am repotting to sphagnum moss. Just to keep it humid around these remaining buds. It should(fingers and toes crossed) push the last of the buds. There is nothing left in the old pbulbs so it will have to be the buds themselves that provide enough energy to sprout. We'll see. Here is what it looks like after being thoroughly cleaned. I hope you can see the little nascent buds I am trying to encourage.

[Barbie_J]

I do see the little bulbs you're trying to encourage. I wish you good luck.

[Queenslander]

Keep us informed James on the progress. I have 1 or 2 Cats. that look like your first photo. I might also try it with 1.

[james mickelso]

Make sure you clean off all the old sheath material and cut the old roots off as close to the pbulb as you can so there won't be anything fungus can start colonizing.

[NYCorchidman]

What happened to the roots??

With the way the whole plant looks, I suspect it got hit hard by fusarium wilt.

You might want to cut rhizome near the oldest leads for a test and see if there is any purple ring in it.

[james mickelso]

No it's not fusarium wilt. No purple ring around the cambium layer. Sometimes divisions just don't regain their vigor for many reasons. This one had severe root problems when I got it. It didn't have enough energy to push out a large healthy pbulb and slowly declined over time. I am just trying to see how far this orchid can go before succumbing to death. As I push the envelope I learn more and more. The other part of this division is healthy and showing the start of a flower sheath.

[NYCorchidman]

So it was already in bad shape when you got it.
Good thing there is no purple ring, but just by looking at it how all the roots are gone, leads are wrinkled up, and the leaves are yellow and stuff (it's the plant in the center in last photo, right?), it just looked like a typical fusarium stricken plant.

If it was not from disease, the plant should be able to make a comeback, you mentioned that it continued on having issues. strange.

[james mickelso]

As can be seen in the second to last pic I cut off the top of one of the pbulbs. It had been bent and was getting soft. I put cinnamon on it to seal it. I cut all the old dried up roots off and cleaned up the rizome so there is nothing for bacteria to attack. It's a study in how far gone a division can get and still push buds. I've done it a few times. I have a batch of C. General patton's that started this way along with C. Karen Gubler. These are the back bulbs from a division of BLC Lawless Zuberfloate "Rainbow". The front of this division from a few years ago is in bud now. In a month or so it will bloom. These old back pbulbs I kept hoping to get them going but they just languished. These pbulbs are the single pbulbs that came up one at a time but never took off. This is their last hurrah. I'm hoping there is enough energy left in these buds to grow and produce roots. Just seeing if it can be done. I don't go out and buy orchids already to bloom. It's not my thing. I like the challenge and reward of getting sick or damaged growing again.

[NYCorchidman]

Well, I am completely opposite. lol

I don't want anything sick in my collection.
It is always easy to keep healthy plants healthy than to go through headache.

I like to have healthy plants that look healthy.

Watering an dertilizing them all are enough challenge for me already.

[james mickelso]

NY, I've seen some of your collection. Very nice. I wouldn't want a collection like that to catch some fungal or bacterial blight so I agree. I'd keep diseased plants as far away from my collection as possible.