FDK Afer Dark 'Black Pearl' Waking up

[mook1178]

I have a Black Pearl that I received in Mid November. I ordered from a nursery and it was listed as NBS. When I received the orchid, it had 2 leaves. I wasn't home and my wife watered it. I haven't watered it since. The leaves were turning yellow and dropped off around the first week of Dec.

I just noticed yesterday a very tiny growth at the base of the psuedobulb. Is this too early to wake up? Is it possible since the plant is still immature, that it would wake up early to grow more? Everything I have seen about these is that they wake up around March/April. Or does the orchid just need more time to adjust to the new climate?

The orchid was shipped from Florida and I am in Delaware.

[orchidsarefun]

I wouldn't be concerned. I have a couple of catasetum ranging from in spike, dormant to new growths emerging.

[JScott]

I only have two Catesetum type plants, one of which is FDK After Dark 'Black Pearl', and this is the time when they always just start to grow. After I read your post, I checked on mine, and they both have little eyes just starting to swell to begin growth. I think yours is right on time.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by mook1178

Is this too early to wake up?

I'm thinking that if it becomes active again, as it is now, then that's the way it will go. So just give it enough natural light for development, and wait for the roots to get long enough before watering again. The plant has pretty much no control of its growing environment. It's kind of like the passenger. Some growers have reported on relatively short dormancy, like in your case.

On the other hand --- we might also need to consider what growing medium was used when the plant arrived. So could it be a case of initial over-watering? --- waterlogged roots, causing the plant to start drowning, yellowing and dropping its leaves. And it is merely continuing its growth after it has recovered, where you might have saved it from drowning and rotting by letting the media dry out. This is not necessarily what happened --- but it's a possibility.

[mook1178]

Thank you for the replies.

I'm thinking that it just must be it's time.

It was packed in sphagnum, but like I mentioned, my wife watered it right away. So there is no way to tell if it was over watered. It hasn't had any water since though.

[isurus79]

The complex hybrids are a lot less season specific with regards to their growth habits. They grow when they want!

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by mook1178

Thank you for the replies.
It was packed in sphagnum, but like I mentioned, my wife watered it right away. So there is no way to tell if it was over watered. It hasn't had any water since though.

Nice information. When I first started growing this sort of plant, I recall it arriving - the media was pure spaghnum - but I didn't know this at first.

The nursery that sold the plant to me are experts, but I was a beginner, and just watered the plant the same way as I did with my catts. But my catts are growing in much different media. I was oblivious to the water-logging. The Fdk leaves started to go yellow after about 1 day or 2 --- triggering alarm bells right away. So I immediately unpotted and saw the water-logging. If I had known roughly what amount of water to apply, and if I had known just when to water, then I could have avoided that situation. Fortunately, if we watch the plants like a hawk, we can oftern avert disaster. I decided to use a different potting strategy --- which is spaghnum packed around the roots, then placed in a good drainage pot, with scoria surrounding the spaghnum/root region --- ie. scoria at the base and sides. This has been working extremely well for me. The roots get some breathing room, and chances of water-logging is reduced a lot. Whatever works well is very good. But obviously 100% tightly-packed spaghnum can work excellently too. Just need to prescribe just the right amount of water for the spaghnum to wick the water around without being saturated.

The Fdk. that started getting yellow leaves recovered nicely within a day. The leaves turned green again, and no issues ever since. That was when I first started with Fdk.

[Roberta]

As I have mentioned on many forum threads, check out Sunset Valley Orchids - Catasetinae culture for a culture guide from one of the world's top experts on this group. Clearly, if you are in the southern hemisphere, make appropriate adjustment for the months mentioned in the article. It's the seasons that dictate both the "when to water or not" and how much when you do.

[SouthPark]

Totally agree with you Roberta. Sometimes, even within a season - depending on what sort of days it is --- eg. very hot, very sunny, extremely rainy, etc ..... the grower might sometimes make decisions about when to do the next watering. "Making appropriate adjustments" is excellently put.

[Roberta]

Well, more than that.. .the months mentioned in the article are northern hemisphere... antipodal folks need to make the the translations to get the seasons correct.