Help!!!!! Fusarium???

[Allan panda]

Got this cattleya in February and it seems to be always dehydrated. I decided to see the roots and cut the thymine open today. Is this fusarium??? If yes, should I throw it away?

[Allan panda]

Ii cut out more rhyzomes and here are pictures

[Roberta]

The last two pictures show cuts with clean tissue (bit brown, so that was a good place to cut) but no evidence that rot has invaded the rhizome. Don't cut any more... small divisions take a long time to re-establish enough strength to do anything.

[estación seca]

I see nothing suggesting Fusarium at all. It is unfortunate you cut up your plant. For reasons mentioned below I would not cut up a plant looking for fusarium.

It looks like a Cattleya with a poor root system. I can't tell whether it arrived with dead roots, or you overwatered it. Your plant will have trouble absorbing enough water until it makes new roots. It will be very important to let your plant dry between waterings, to prevent further root rot.

When a Cattleya is growing poorly, fusarium is probably the last thing to worry about. The vast majority of Cattleya trouble can be traced to bad roots. There is no sign of a purple ring in your plants' rhizome. I wonder whether the Internet is full of videos of people cutting up their plants looking for purple rings? Fusarium is a disease of very warm and humid growing environments. I don't think it is a problem in most people's homes.

Most Cattleya hybrids make root and shoot growth at about the same time, when it warms up in spring. Old root still function to take up water, but new roots do it better. For this reason people recommend not repotting Cattleyas unless there is new root growth. This suggestion is especially important for bifoliate Cattleya species, and perhaps their descendants. If you repot a Cattleya at the wrong time, you will probably damage at least some roots. It may be many months before the plant decides to grow new roots. While waiting for roots, the plant may dry out more and more, if the environment is not too humid and there are not many roots to absorb water.

There are people who repot all orchids immediately on arrival, so they can inspect the roots. I would not do this for a Cattleya not currently making roots. I would definitely look at the roots, and water very carefully until new root growth began.

Now that you've unpotted the plant, you are stuck. I would repot into fresh medium. Water it, then let it dry completely at the center. There are probably at least some living roots; it would be easy to kill them if you keep the plant too wet after repotting.

Keep it in a humid environment. Your hope is that the plant doesn't dessicate to the point of death before it makes functioning new roots. The small pieces you cut off will have a harder time surviving.

[Orchid Whisperer]

With single shriveled pseudobulbs and no roots, I would toss out unless this is a really special plant.

Hint for the future: ask for advice (gladly given here) before hacking up a plant.

Over the (several) years on this forum, in response to the "is this fusarium" question, I have seen fusarium maybe twice.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I've been noticing a trend recently...

What is up with this Fusarium scare? Who is advising this kind of treatment for plants suspected of the disease?

Again, like I said, I'm not trying to downplay Fusarium as a problem, but the things that go wrong with an orchid can be numerous and isn't necessarily associated with Fusarium. Most of the times, the primary cause to an orchid's problems in cultivation are problems with cultivation techniques that cause a lot of stress to the plants. The stress lowers the plant's immune system, and therefore makes it susceptible to disease organisms to attack. If you make adjustments to your techniques, you will usually see very drastic differences in your plant's well-being over time.

In the meantime, yes, as estacion seca mentioned, the Cattleya had a poor root system to begin with. The plant was bound to look dehydrated because of this. An orchid's roots are the primary method for it to absorb water and nutrients. When those are gone, the plant has a difficult time keeping itself properly hydrated.

The plant was quite possibly salvageable until it was cut up into individual pseudobulbs. You might as well toss those pseudobulbs regardless of whether they are sentimental to you or not.

Cattleya form new roots from new shoots and they do so right about this time of year.

All you had to do was put this plant in a bright location with high humidity and a decent amount of air circulation, and you might see new shoots growing producing new roots.

I realize that maybe you have not been growing orchids for a long time, (I don't know), but in the future, as was mentioned above, please do not cut up any more ailing orchids trying to look for signs of Fusarium. It would've been more advantageous if you posted pics about the questionable plant asking others what they thought about it before any kind of cuts are made to the plant.

I would also not focus so much on Fusarium. Focus on ways to grow your orchid right. Also focus on building up your skills on how to select a healthy orchid for purchase.

[Orchid Whisperer]

@K.o.o.g., well stated and exactly correct.

Someone must be dispensing painfully bad advice somewhere. This is the second hacked-up plant in a week that has been posted on this forum with the Fusarium question, where no Fusarium exists.

To the o.p., try placing the most recent growth in an empty terracotta pot, tie it in place, hope that the lead growth has enough energy to make new growth. Don't cut any more old pseudobulbs, or other growths, off of the plant for at least 5 years.

[murph7]

I think missorchidgirl in Youtube has been cutting many of her plants, and viewers were doing the same. While I do not know for sure, I think people see what they want to see when looking for an explanation of why things are not going ok with their plants.

[Allan panda]

First, thank you all so much for the help. And like Murph7 said, I did watch missorchidgirl's channel and got quite scared. Anyways, the cattleya still has about ten pseudobulbs and two new growth shooting out new roots! I thought it would be good to report it anyways since the old medium is getting soft. The pseudobulbs that I cut were submerged in the medium so they would just rot. I potted up the plant with new medium and new roots are growing so it kind of makes it better?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Fusarium is a potential problem. It is not a rampant problem, nor is it the biggest one, if this makes sense. It is only one of many different issues in orchid cultivation.

As beginners, we tend to think that Fusarium is everywhere because we don't know what we're doing yet. We tend to select plants we thought were good, but really weren't. We also tend to believe certain fallacies about orchid culture only to discover the truth later. It is with experience we find that Fusarium is actually somewhat rare.

Learning to deal with an actual Fusarium problem is important, but do understand that if you are selecting for healthy plants to purchase, and you are providing an environment that the orchid thrives in, an actual Fusarium infection is quite rare. This is what I mean when I say that I am not trying to downplay the severity of an actual Fusarium infection when it happens. It is real, and it is very devastating to both the plant and the grower, but the thing is the prevalence of it is not as pervasive as one might think it is, particularly if you select strong plants and if you grow it right.