Catasetum alliance

[bullsie]

I'm new to this group of plants and find the dormancy cycle nice. But am unsure of when to start watering. I am seeing new growth, but the medium they are in now is sphag and unable to see any roots other than last years. Second question, when do I repot them? I'm thinking of keeping the medium in now - sphagnum, and in very good condition still - and just putting into a bit larger pot with some chc, perlite, type mix.

Any suggestions on growing this alliance would be absolutely appreciated!

 

[theorchidzone]

See her.
http://www.sunsetvalleyorchids.com/htm/culture_catasetinae.html

I'm new to this group of plants and find the dormancy cycle nice. But am unsure of when to start watering. I am seeing new growth, but the medium they are in now is sphag and unable to see any roots other than last years. Second question, when do I repot them? I'm thinking of keeping the medium in now - sphagnum, and in very good condition still - and just putting into a bit larger pot with some chc, perlite, type mix.

Any suggestions on growing this alliance would be absolutely appreciated!

 

[bullsie]

I've read it several times, but still am unsure. I am starting to see new growth on one and another is putting out what looks to be a spike. The new growth ones I should repot now - correct? Should I ignore the one with the spike till an eye starts to sprout?

Start watering when roots appear. The sphag is packed tight, but with the new growth will I be able to see the roots to know to start watering?

 

[JAB]

Was just speaking with Fred Clarke the other day about this... wait until roots are a good 1-3" before watering lightly. You do not want to start watering as soon as you see roots, be patient.

 

[bullsie]

OK, so I will be able to see the new roots growing - I am assuming they will show up on top of the sphag first.

 

[cnycharles]

When he visited our club, he said you could really wait until the new roots were close to the bottom of the pot. You can repot any time after it starts to dry up and die back, as he says the old roots will then die and will just be anchors. Just repot before new roots start poking out so they don't get snapped


Elmer Nj

 

[bullsie]

OK! Sounds great! That is what I will start doing now - repot that is.

I've had one bloom and it was wonderful, so really would like to succeed with these guys. Appreciate all's help!

 

[Cheyenne]

I have been growing these for a while now. The first few years were not the easiest until I got it figured out. It is important to not water until you see roots elongate to about 3-5 inches. I sometimes wait until I see roots sticking out the holes in the bottom. It will be a large flush of roots out of the base of new growth, not from old growth. It will be different for all the plants. Some will be long enough by march, some have not been long enough until june! Separate out the ones you can water and keep the others dry until they are all in active growth. If you water early the roots will stop and plant will be weak. I repot in the middle of dormacy. If you see root tips it is to late to repot. They really resent breaking of root tips.

 

[bullsie]

It was finding roots that I was worried about. I'll be doing my repotting now. These are so tightly packed with sphag that it would be almost impossible to see roots. I will be putting them into clear pots so that really should give me an edge for seeing roots. Thank you!

 

[AdamD]

All great advice. I started watering one the other day, others are just breaking dormancy. It's hard to wait to water, but it is a must. I've learned from experience. Even if you do minor (or major) damage in repotting, this group is very resilient. I broke off a new growth while repotting this year, a new one came along a few weeks later. I supplement with kelp extract and Innocucor in the first few waterings. Then a decent amount of balanced fertilizer almost every watering. I've had to kill a few to get it right...

 

[My Green Pets]

I have a Mormodia that is starting to bloom out, but its bulbs are shrivelling quite a bit, and I am tempted to at least spray some water around the base of the plant. Bad idea?

 

[Paphman910]

I water once a week in the winter depending on how long the medium drys out.

You should be fine with spraying a small amount of water to pump up the bulbs!

 

[Happypaphy7]

I watered mine during dormancy too. Just slightly though when I saw some wrinkles on the pb.
Let's see.
I have a very limited experience with these but from what I understand, mormodes are the easiest to rot followed by Cycnoches.
Catasetum and Clowesia(?) are much easier.
Unfortunately I prefer Cycnoches over all others.

My first was Cycnoches Golden Shower. It was hrs beautiful with great scent.
I kept it alive through the dormancy. I did water here and there when the sphagnum it was in got vibe dry AND some wrinkles showed.
Come spring, I still misted here and there but did not start watering like crazy until the new growth had 8 leaves!
It must have been well into May.
Then one day, I found this soft musth rot starting at the base of this new growth. I should have just severed it and wait for the best shoot, but I freaked out and tossed the whole thing. lol
Stupid me. I've never seen this hybrid again.
I now have a replacement of something similar. Jumbo Puff or something. It will have yellow flowers.just breaking dormant at the moment.

I had Monn. Millenium Magic years ago. It had no fuss but I gave it away. Not my kind of flowers. It was a freebie anyway.

Now I have two cycnoches hybrids from SVO and this Jumbo Puff from Big Leaf.
Both cycnoches hybrids flowered into late fall and they shed leaves very late. Still deep in sleep.
I will see how I fare with them when they wake up.
All are in sphagnum, so I guess that's preferred for these.

Oh, I do have Wine Delight that is waking up, but it flowered early last year like late summer, then spider mites attacked the leaves so I pulled them all off. lol
That was around October.
I have been misting it when the pot went bone dry.
The little growth is now about two inches tall with millions of roots pushing out.