catasetum propagation by broken roots
 

bear with me for the lengthy explaination....
i had a ctsm longiflorum, that once fell to the floor and the pot was shattered. because i dun want to damage the roots too much as it was actively growing, i just scoop the entire of it and place in in a slightly bigger pot.
it grew happily for several months till i one i decided to pull out a weed that is growing beside it. only then i notice there is a bulb like structure at the end of the it....taking a closer look, it looks like a miniature version of my longifolium.
today i asked the vendor did he grow the longifolium from compot? he said no and ask why then i tell the entire story to him and he smile and replied that he read in a book that some catasetum broken roots can produce keiki! HOWEVER I FORGOT TO ASK IF IT IS ONLY FOR LONGIFOLIUM OR OTHER CATASETUMS AS WELL.
here is the pic of the small keiki i removed and also here i would like some further info from the CATASETUMS GURUS here.:bowing

You dont have to wait for any experts on this:
You yourself can go to these links and be informed.

Catasetum Culture by Bert Pressman
East Everglades Orchids Society
Carter & Holmes Catasetum culture
Cycnoches and Catasetum Orchid Care - Carter and Holmes Orchids Culture
Important reading matter:
The world of Catasetums (a book by: Arthur W. Holst)

and finally:
Catasetum - Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia
Catasetum

thanks for the link but i am interested to know about the formation of keiki from broken roots of the catasetums. appreciate any further detail on this aspect.

catasetum-ian - Are you sure that it came from the roots, I have never seen or heard of that before. It more than likely was a keiki that was on the bulb itself and somehow became detached. In either case you did the right thing and got it potted up. Were there any roots attached when you found it? If so I would try to keep the immature bulb from going into dormancy. Keep it warm with bright light and maybe it will survive the winter.

i can't be sure it was from the roots but definitely not a broken keiki because at the time of incident, the plant is only with two bulbs and no new growth.
in addition to that, the place where the keiki emerge is several inches away from the base of the plant, nothing is there that is why initially i thought it was a weeds.
another member from another forum just posted that one of her friend had a Fred. After Dark that had the similar situation, they used the word "root keiki".
will try to dig for further info and come up with updates if i had any.

I have never heard of any root keiki before. I would be curious to see this bloom to see if its the same plant.

will keep you updated but it might take years for the keiki is now only slightly over an inch in height.

hah hah....BINGO...just found a citation, in chapter 3, pg 39 (under the root section ) from the book WORLD of catasetums by Arthur W. Holst, it did mentioned that occasionally new plant may arise from one of the main roots
:biggrin:

Ian, that was I who has the Fdk. After Dark and when I repotted it I found 2 what I call root keikis that were coming directly from roots of the mother plant ! I cut them free, potted them up separately and now 5 months later the one that survived is 4" tall and hasn't gone dormant yet ! When found it was just about 3/4" and, like you, I thought it was a weed ! The second one didn't survive.

:clap:

:thankyou

Ya learn something new everyday - thats pretty friggin neat :cool:

Here's a pix of my root keiki now 4" tall !
.

Fdk. After Dark 'SVO Black Pearl' (root keiki)
 

Here's an update one year later !!! It's now 9.5" tall and I've got it in s/h. Gonna be at least one ,ore year before a blooming !!

This whole thread just blows my mind! lol Pretty cool that you can grow a new plant from just the roots. I would never have guessed....

Me neither ! Thought it was a weed !!

it is nice to see that your keiki had been growing so well Chryss. hope to see the bloom soon as well,
unfortunately mine did not made it, the keiki was rotted away due to some fungal/bacteria problem several months later after i posted this thread

anyone have any updates on this ?
I had a new growth suddenly appear alongside an older new growth, is this typical ?

One of my Catasetums (not longifolium) once developed a root keiki. I was wondering and took pictures. But it stayed small and after a few weeks it died.

good to see this thread resurface again.
first of all, the mother plant eventually flowered, and it is a x roseoalbum and not longifolium.
secondly, the root keiki did not make it, after a couple of months, it died due to some infection.

formation of root keiki is documented in the book World of Catasetums, but just briefly mentioned.


and

the new growth is from the base of the PB? mine is emerging from else where distant from the PB, and since it is fresh media and i do not have any catasetum seeds existing in my garden that time. the best explanation is a root keiki.

I am sure it is from the pseudobulb, but a picture says it best. I wasn't aware that multiple growths can be sent up in one year and from a single bulb.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/08/12/8avanety.jpg

this one is a new growth from the PB and yes, robust plant can send up multiple growth in a single growth cycle.
a root keiki is much smaller in size and the initial appearance is something like those plantlets that we deflasked.

cat-ian - do you know anything about seed pods on catasetums ? I was curious as to how long these take to develop and what happens to them when the plant goes dormant. Do they continue developing ?

the longest i had was about 7 mths before i harvested it as green pod and the fastest one i got is 3 months 4 days, when it started to crack (and yes, i did double check with microscope, inside it is all embryonated seeds). in the internet, some site stated there time for maturity is 8-9 months.
the seed pod continue to mature while the plant goes dormant.
and i do not know if it is a coincidence, but the one where i harvested at 7mths old seed pod is from dormant plant while the other one that ripe at 3 mths age is from an active growing plant. perhaps plant growing activity had an influence on pod maturity time?? very hard to conclude from such small sample size

Interesting! I know that some Phalaenopsis species can do this as well!

I suppose I should start a separate thread, but....a question on pollination. These have male and female flowers ( sometimes not both ) - to get pollination do you have to do a male/female cross, or does the female also have pollen?

I like catasetums because they take up no space in our Winter and I can have them outdoors all summer !


I found your blogpost on pollination - but still am curious about the male/female flower angle - as opposed to the female/female pollination.

catasetum-ian: pollination

only the male flower has pollen. and since you may not have both present at the same time, male pollen can be harvested and kept covered by a paper towel and then stored in the freezer in a airtight container. it can last for at least a year.

"but still am curious about the male/female flower angle - as opposed to the female/female pollination"

don't really get your meaning on this part ??

you answered my question by saying you need a male flower for pollen - unlike most other orchids where you can self as the flower contains both pollen and stamen.
Probably explains why I read that some growers use an aluminium foil covering over the bud to to produce a flower of the opposite sex, if I remember correctly to produce a male flower. Maybe I will try that method, no harm.

I have done it and it works. You have to get the tinfoil on as early as possible and you have to do it so that the spike doesn't break! It can be tricky!

very true. its fun but i use a styrofoam cube and dig a hole in the center and they are basically weightless and they do not get heated up under the sun

ok, so this is my effort with Cat. Planiceps.
I think the aluminium cap is "light" enough to grow with the spike. I suppose I will have to make it longer/bigger as the spike grows. I modelled the cap around a pen. Its not tight even though it looks like it is.
- when can it be removed ?
- does it seem OK ? I tried other methods but this was the least invasive for the plant.


http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/08/13/pepebabu.jpg


looks like a toadstool.....:rofl:

that cap would do fine, need not to cover the whole spike, just the tip would do.
to see if how fast can you remove the cap, it depends on how early can you detect whether it is a male bud that is forming.
by the way...ctsm planiceps?? a planiceps have a erect spike and not arching and also the bulbs are subconical in shape usually (meanings broader at base then tapered) and not fusiform or oblong fusiform as shown in your pic. would like to see how the flower looks like when it bloom.

sure. I haven't flowered this before, so I am not 100% positive. I got this from an AOS judge so I am sure its correctly labelled.