Project 2016: Cattleya walkeriana

[wintergirl]

Originally Posted by gngrhill

Both of my rootless wonders are bare root in a clay pot (together) and I dunk the roots every morning and again when I get home from work. The first one has 2 iffy roots the second one has a half inch root the rest are dead. so far so good. I'll keep trying. Once they start growing roots I plan on mounting them.

Good idea, I may still mount my potted one yet.

[estación seca]

My seedlings seem to make the best root growth after maturing a new lead.

[BillieG]

Just in, my Catt Walkeriana Semi-Alba Camelia. It was mounted, but I am away from home much too often to keep it sprayed, so I potted it in bark. I almost potted it in Leica but decided bark might be the easier transition from mounted.
For some reason I can't load my photo.

[u bada]

I got my cattleya walkeriana... it's a coerulea form called 'monte azul'... I ordered it from tropical orchid farm... and let me just say, well you can see from the image below, their plants are always phenomenal... I mean look at the number of pbs, look at the roots!...

It was growing in a plastic pot with no media, in hawaii I imagine things are very wet so they grow a lot of things this way, especially things that need to dry out. i took a picture after I carefully took it out of pot.

(The whole order was really amazing. I've ordered from them quite a few times over the years and they've always been stellar. Been having bad experiences with my regular CA vendors, so this was greatly welcome... and realizing I need to support vendors like them more... )

I potted it in a clay pot with a little bit of orchiata. After a talk I attended recently by a grower/AOS judge/emmy winner costume designer, I'm trying out the virtue of the classic clay pot with it's ability to wick water into it and keep roots cool... it will be sitting in a glazed larger pot where water can sit at the bottom a bit between waterings since we're finding out this species needs ample water when growing. The bottom of the pot inside is lined with gravel.

[Fernando]

Yup, that is a real healthy plant!

[Leafmite]

I agree! Very nice, u bada!

Good luck with your new one, BillieG!

[Subrosa]

An update on one of my semi alba 'Carmela' bag babies. First pic shows a recently matured pseudobulb that I have a suspicion could flower this fall. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that leca is the only way to grow Catts. When I can get a division off of my nobilior I'll know for certain!

[gngrhill]

Ubada, that looks very healthy. I was just thinking of how you would pot something like that with that really long rhizome ? I'd love to see a picture of it potted to see how you did that. I have a couple of Catts that are throwing new leads all over the place and I don't really know how to handle that.

[Leafmite]

New leads are great!

[estación seca]

Regarding wandering Cattleya rhizomes: bil from Spain who posts here has shown photos, of other plants in his growing area, that include, in the background, some of his Cattleyas. I don't recall him ever writing about these Catts. They are in very large and shallow plastic pans, the kind you might use for washing a lot of dishes, but a little larger. They are filled with bark, and set in a bench inclined at about 30 degrees, so a short end of the pan is down. They are filled with his favorite extra-large bark. I am guessing there are drain holes in the pans, but I don't know for sure. I'm going to send this message to him and ask him to comment.