Blc. Waianae Leopard 'Ching Hua' Secret?

[D&S Mabel]

Sometimes I ask myself why I put up with this plant... then I see one like OrchidTess has grown and I'm hooked again. Beautiful!

OrchidTess, what are you using for potting mix? Can you be a little more descriptive on the light levels you give it? Mine gets about 3 hours of late morning sun and bright shade the rest of the day.

Thanks for posting the pic.

[quiltergal]

Wow Tess, what an awesome display! Great growing! Makes me want to go order one right now.....never mind that I'm out of space.

I have found that many of my Catts that have kind of been pooping along not doing much of anything seem to respond very favorably to being repotted. I have a Blc. Mem. Vida Lee 'Limelight' that wasn't doing much of anything. I repotted in the spring and it kicked out a new growth, new roots and even a sheath! It might be worth a try?

[D&S Mabel]

Repot? Hadn't thought of that, although I did pot it in the spring of '07. In looking at it, I was trying stones at the time as a potting mix add and maybe it doesn't like them.

I'll change it up tomorrow and see what I get. Thanks for the tip!

[OrchidTess]

It is potted in Monterey Fir Bark, Sphagnum Moss, Aliflor in a clay pot and bright light all day....I'll take a light level reading tomorrow when the sky clears.
Thank you for the nice compliments!

[Jerry Delaney]

Golly, I guess I should consider myself very lucky. I bought a compot of this clone a couple of years ago and have had several bloom this year. I don't know if it makes any difference but since it is 50% C. guttata, a bifoliate, I make sure to do any repotting in early spring. I am certainly going to be sure that mine don't get to see this thread. Maybe they just don't know that they are supposed to sulk!

[D&S Mabel]

Well, I did take Terri's advice and repotted my plant on September the 9th, using a mix similar to what OrchidTess uses and... it grew!!! Repotting appeared to do the trick. That little 1/2" nub of a gowth, that had just been sitting there, shot up to about 4" tall with two full leaves. Nice, healthy growth!!

Why am I not posting a picture of my success? Because I just managed to sun-burn the crap out of it in the last two days!! Aack!!

But I'm hooked now... bought a replacement on the way home from work today...

Thanks for the advice all. I need to take a closer look at some of the other plants I might have that a good repot might kick start.

[amyqofu]

OK, I'm new enough at catts that I have not repotted any; I have unpotted and mounted one.
I assume that it's too late to repot this now, but wait for early spring?

[D&S Mabel]

On the whole, yes, it is better to wait until new growth begins, usually in the spring, to repot.

[Don Perusse]

Location! Location! Location! Cats and their crosses like high light levels but NOT direct sun especially in central Fl. I pot all my cats in tree fern w/redwood chips....good drainage and mix doesn't break down as quickly as bark.

[D&S Mabel]

Most of my Cat. types get about 2 hours of direct sun early in the morning (about 8am-ish to about 10am). They do well with this. At worst, some have slight purple tingeing around the edges. I probably get away with this because of my conditions, low light angles, etc.

For some reason, I decided to hang this pot above the rest where it got about 3 hours of direct sun until around 11am. The extra time and more intense light cooked it.

After explaining to a couple local growers that I have rot problems during hurricane season, they recommended a potting mix for Cat. types of medium sized redwood chips (30%), treefern (10%), charcoal (30%), and rock (30%) (leca or sponge rock) that I'm going to try. Their comments were as yours, Don - slow breakdown and fast draining while retaining moisture (not wet, but moist). They felt this mix would work well for plants exposed to the weather, 24/7, in my area.

Oh, and they recommended using clay pots as well. Again, for my conditions.