Help needed with Cattleya - Orchid Board

mexicowpants · #1 05-23-2016, 05:36 PM

Got this Catt a few weeks ago, with buttons. It flowered fine, but the blooms didn't last as long as I expected, only a few days. After they dropped, the plant started to look a little sad, so I decided to take it out of its pot to see what was going on.
Pretty much all of its roots had rotted away - I had to trim off all but a couple of little stubs. The new growths you see in the photos were white when I removed it from its pot, they had been totally buried.
I left it out of the media, and was soaking it for an hour or so every day in water and once a week with SuperThrive. After 2 weeks I potted it up in white lava rock, but continued with the 1-2 hour soakings every day.
The photos you see here are from today. I noticed a bit of fungus on one of the new growths, so treated it with Captan. The new growths are now green (and have grown slightly), but there is still no new root growth. And the leaves are starting to look very dehydrated.

How should I proceed from here? I'm at a bit of a loss...

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

rbarata · #2 05-23-2016, 06:18 PM

I suspect too much water. How was your watering regime before you've noticed the problem?

Orchid Whisperer · #3 05-23-2016, 06:34 PM

I agree, probably too much water.

Place the plants in an unglazed terracotta pot with no medium. If the plants want to tip over, you may need to tie the rhizomes to something heavy in the bottom of the pot.

Place the pot in a shaded location. Wet the inside of the pot once a day, preferably early in the morning. This is to provide some humidity. If the plant is strong enough, it will send out new roots.

Cattleyas dislike soaklng. They prefer to become nearly dry in between watering. Longer soaks will kill roots.

rbarata · #4 05-23-2016, 06:54 PM

I water mine every 7 to 10 days, if it's dry... if not, I wait a little longer. I soak it because there are a lot of big voids in the medium. This way water can reach all spaces.
Then I wait a few minutes, drain the excess water and then put my fingers in contact with the holes in the pot bottom. Remaining water, by means of surface tension, is "sucked" from inside the pot.

bil · #5 05-23-2016, 07:39 PM

How interesting. I had mine on trays, and I watered them every day, twice a day in the summer, and they developed root mats that were half a metre long.

rbarata · #6 05-23-2016, 07:43 PM

Quote:

How interesting. I had mine on trays, and I watered them every day, twice a day in the summer, and they developed root mats that were half a metre long..

I bought mine last autumn so I don't know how the summer will be. Most probably I'll need to water it every two days or so, too.

mexicowpants · #7 05-23-2016, 07:45 PM

Ours are watered once or twice a week, depending on temperatures. They're all in pumice/lava rock, and due to the high temperatures and low humidity here, very frequent watering is necessary. All are doing really well. This one came potted up in what looked like a terrestrial mix which stayed wet for a very long time (after I bought it I didn't need to water it for over 2 weeks) , which I would guess was a large part of the problem. Judging from the extent of the root damage, I'd also guess that the rot had started a long time before we took ownership of the plant.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk