Pinching New Cattleya Growth
 

Does anyone out there pinch new cattleya growths to force a more compact growth habit?

Pruning is a technique I've obviously utilized with most other plants, but I never see this advice given for cattleya or orchids in general.

I have a cattleya walkeriana that walked quickly across it's pot. Two months ago I was trying to bend the new growth back so it rooted into the pot and "snap!". I looked closely at the plant today and it is putting out 4 new growths all back throughout the pot. Is this the expected reaction to pruning from cattleya? Is there a risk in doing this?

Patience!;)

Pinching New Cattleya Growth
 

I've made a mental note of this Clawhammer. Particularly applicable to Walkerianas given that they tend to walk out of their pot more so than other Cattleyas.

I remember asking the same question once!

The answer I got in a nutshell was that it is "frowned upon." I didn't know what that meant exactly (aren't we just trying to grow orchids the best way we can?) but I think it was serious growers thinking that it would get plants docked points in judging situations.

To answer your question yes that is the reaction I expect and yes there is risk. Some plants, especially those which only have one lead may not recover from loosing it. It is a bit like surgery for humans, always risky and best to avoid, but I understand the draw, especially with walkeriana. I specifically don't grow walkers for that exact reason. I say if your plant is large and healthy, proceed with caution (cut clean and maybe cinnamon on the wound). I imagine there will be some strong gut reactions from other growers.

A lot of good points, thanks Louis! I actually accidently broke off two other cattleya growing leads this year (hey, i have a lot of plants ok), both were large unifoliate cattleya hybrids. One of them sprouted two growing leads after the unintentional pruning, one next to the broken lead and one back in the pot. The other cattleya only regrew one lead next to the broken one, so the "pruning" just set it back a month.

I think I will employ this method strategically in the future as I have no intention of having any of my plants judged.

I think that trying to “force compactness” is futile. Each sympodial plant has its own growth habit. By cutting off the growth meristem, you have succeeded in making the plant try to secure its survival by “awakening” several others, but I would expect each of them to spread out as much as the first one would have,

I think the “frowned upon” aspect comes from judging (I hope more knowledgeable folks chime in), where cutting the rhizome to force multiple leads will be rejected.

FWIW, I see similar growth multiplication with regular Kelpak applications.

I have often advocated cutting a new growth to generate multiple new leads on Cattleyas (and other genera). It works!

FYI - There is no problem with judging if you perform this procedure. There could be a problem if you cut the middle of the plant (as Ray discussed), which essentially creates two new plants with multiple leads. Simply chopping (purposefully or accidentally!) a new lead will not cause consternation if your plant is getting judged.

Cool! Good to hear your guys takes on this. Im glad you brought this back up clawhammer!

Ps. Like Ray said kelpak encourages multiple leads. Most of my plants have doubled their amount of leads even though some are still seedlings. I have one C. aclandiae that only has two small growths about two inches tall and three leads

I recently removed the leads from two Cattleya percivalianas (same variety). Both of the plants had single leads that had already rooted into new pots. Since I made the cuts, the old plants have made two new leads each.

Good to know that Cattleyas respond to pinching a new bud with producing new ones further back. I got a Rhyncholaeliocattleya 'La Guaria' that I potted the old pot into a bigger basket because all the new growth was outside of the original pot. If it tries to escape the new basket, which has tons of room on the other side, I might just pinch off the new bud and hope for several new ones further back. There a several dormant ones further back that would work out nicely if they became active.