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Originally Posted by mkallen81
ok so reading this thread, and as a new comer to cats. I am wondering why you don't put air holes in your plastic pots so the air moves freely?
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This is indeed done by some growers. It certainly will allow air to get into the pot more in a growing area having good air-flow. One consideration could be - whether roots eventually grow out of the holes - possibly making it hard when (if) it comes to repot time.
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Hi so i have just read through this thread, and i don't really understand why there is so much worry about root rot with catts. i understood that they are terrestrial orchids and thus could even be grown in potting soil. Do they need all that much air around their roots?
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Cattleya type orchids are not considered to be terrestrial orchids. They don't normally grow in soil. Under certain suitable conditions, it wouldn't be surprising that at least some cattleya orchids could grow purely in fairly fast draining sand.
One of the important aims is to prevent the roots from getting starved of oxygen. Roots need oxygen to survive. And the roots also need enough water to get into the roots in order for both roots and orchid to survive. Adequately oxygenated water provides roots with the needed oxygen.
Growing purely bare root orchids without watering won't work well with every grower - as survival would then depend on the suitability of the environment. So growers usually need to have some input with watering.
An airy enough growing medium that retains some water (after watering) in a pot that has both good drainage and adequate number and size of holes (such as at the bottom of the pot) helps to avoid water stagnation in the pot - especially when the orchid is grown in an area where air doesn't move much (or at all), and still-air environments can invite certain unwanted fungal growth.
When media (eg. spaghnum) is used that can get waterlogged/saturated and can potentially lead to stagnant regions inside a pot (and causing roots to be starved of oxygen), then it will be up to the grower to choose (if they can) a watering method that avoids root suffocation. This could involve choosing a suitable amount of water to add, and knowing how long to wait between watering.
It's all about control.
If the grower knows what needs to be controlled to keep orchids healthy in general, and if they can keep important quantities (suitable growing temperature, suitable light level and light duration, water intake for orchid, adequate oxygen intake into roots, adequate nutrient supplement intake, adequate moving air-flow around entire plant - leaves, stem, media, roots and all) under control all of the time, then that gives the orchids excellent chances of staying healthy.
Where things can go bad is - for example - cold climate countries, where the orchid might not have suitable systems in place for staying healthy when it gets too cold, and lighting level and lighting duration gets low. Or when air is still for a long time, and possible fungal/bacterial activity starts up. This is all assuming that the plants already get adequate supplements (fertiliser etc).
Pots for Catts.
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