My first Cattleya!

[desirue]

I ordered a mystery Cattleya from Odom's Orchids. It just arrived today. The tag says it's a 'blc chunyeah 19'. I googled pictures of it and looks gorgeous! I can't wait to see it open and bloom!

I have an email in to the owner asking about watering; but I thought I would post here too since you guys have all been so helpful when it comes to my beloved Phal.

I gave it a 1/2 cup water when I went home for lunch and unpacked it. I was weary of giving it more until I had additional advice. Do you think I should water it again this evening? It's not in a clear pot, so the only roots I have to go by are the roots seen in the picture.

This is my first Cattleya orchid. I'm excited to dip my toes into a whole new orchid world. Thanks for any tips/advice you can give me.

[rbarata]

Your orchid is a Rhyncholaeliocattleya. I'm not sure but I think Brassolaeliocattleya (Blc) is the older nomenclature when Rhyncholaelia were classified as Brassavola.

OrchidWiz says about watering: Mature plants MUST dry out between waterings.

[desirue]

I had never heard of OrchidWiz; it's very comprehensive! Might look into downloading the encyclopedia when I get home. Thx!

[Shadeflower]

lucky you. With buds too.
Half a cup is quite a lot already. If you only have a few and you have some spare kitchen scales (I bought a cheap set just for my orchids)
you can weigh the whole pot and orchid now. Then weigh it again in 3 days time.

That will give you a rough idea how much it is drinking at yours (as this varies depending on light, humidity and temperature). Divide the difference by 3 to see how much it has drunk per day, then multiply by 7 to know how much to water maximum in a week.

Sticking a finger in the pot to feel for moisture is good when the sides are not seethrough. I like seethrough pots because you can see how much condensation is in the bottom

Then see what the seller recommends and come up with your preferred method.

You can either soak the whole pot and let the roots absorb a lot or you can spray the roots a little here and there or you can just pour the right amount of water into the pot and keep it to a weekly watering schedule.

Everyone has a different approach. Cattleya's do like to dry out between waterings and it is the safest way to water to prevent fungus growing in the pot, a periodic drying will stop fungus growing.

Cattleya's do not need to dry out between watering but that is more of an advanced way to water I suppose and should only be done if you are sure your media will not cause fungal problems being damp all the time. That comes from experience so initially stick to watering a good weekly amount and letting the pot dry out completely between,

in winter it might drink a little less so keep checking the pot dries out well enough every week before giving more.

[desirue]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

lucky you. With buds too.
Half a cup is quite a lot already. If you only have a few and you have some spare kitchen scales (I bought a cheap set just for my orchids)
you can weigh the whole pot and orchid now. Then weigh it again in 3 days time.

That will give you a rough idea how much it is drinking at yours (as this varies depending on light, humidity and temperature). Divide the difference by 3 to see how much it has drunk per day, then multiply by 7 to know how much to water maximum in a week.

Sticking a finger in the pot to feel for moisture is good when the sides are not seethrough. I like seethrough pots because you can see how much condensation is in the bottom

Then see what the seller recommends and come up with your preferred method.

You can either soak the whole pot and let the roots absorb a lot or you can spray the roots a little here and there or you can just pour the right amount of water into the pot and keep it to a weekly watering schedule.

Everyone has a different approach. Cattleya's do like to dry out between waterings and it is the safest way to water to prevent fungus growing in the pot, a periodic drying will stop fungus growing.

Cattleya's do not need to dry out between watering but that is more of an advanced way to water I suppose and should only be done if you are sure your media will not cause fungal problems being damp all the time. That comes from experience so initially stick to watering a good weekly amount and letting the pot dry out completely between,

in winter it might drink a little less so keep checking the pot dries out well enough every week before giving more.

Shadeflower, thank you for your reply and advice! I'm hoping the 1/2 cup wasn't too much; it just seemed fairly hot and dry from the 2 day shipping travel time. I'll see what Odom's has to say, too. For now, I'll just leave it be. This particular medium is very pebbly; I tried sticking my finger partly down through it, but it's not as easy as my Phal bark medium. I'll buy some skewers tonight and see if that helps until I get more familiar with the watering schedule for this particular orchid.

And thanks for the tip on the scale; I've got one at home, I'll weigh it tonight.

[desirue]

Should I be taking off that twist tie or leave it on?

[estación seca]

With a Cattleya in bud or flower, don't let it stay dry for long.

Don't measure water for orchids. Take it to the sink and run plenty of water through the pot so all the medium gets wet. When this Cattleya is almost dry, do it again. The watering interval depends on ambient temperatures and humidity, not the calendar.

[BrassavolaStars]

I generally don’t measure how much water I give an orchid so much as how often/long I want to have it be dry.

Generally what I do is hose the orchid throughly (not the leaves, only the pot) until water has permeated every inch and is flowing strongly out the bottom of the pot.

I think the best thing to gauge is how long it takes the medium to become dry or just shy of dry. As the previous post says, this is very dependent on humidity, temperature/sunlight, and also air circulation. All of these things in concert will dictate how long it takes a pot to dry. Generally, with decently draining bark and typical conditions, this might be a week but it really depends on what your growing conditions are. For me, a week suffices for most of my plants. That said, this amount of time is subject to change with any change in weather.

That said, it is also worth checking how uniformly the medium dries. I have had pots that while the top third of the pot would be bone dry after a few days, the rest of the pot would be wet and rotting.

This is an very unideal condition that would be a sign that you both need to change to new medium and also get a better draining pot with more aeration.

You also don’t want to let it get so dry that the roots desiccate. I used to be so afraid of letting plants stay damp too long that I ended up losing far more plants to under-watering than “overwatering”.

[desirue]

Help my cattleya buds are leaning/drooping to the side quite drastically. I can’t tell if they’re in the start of bud blast or if they’re simply leaning towards the sun. Also, the color of the buds has changed to yellowish-red. I know these flowers are a yellowish red color so I’m not so much worried about that as I am them leaning. Should I be worried? Do they look like they’re blasting to you? I am worried I’m losing the flowers

[desirue]

Attaching another picture showing what they looked like yesterday. I moved them slightly from yesterday to today.