Project 2016: Cattleya walkeriana

[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.

[bil]

Hi Estacion seca.

Here's a few pics. I think the more complete ones are in the pc that has crashed. If necessary I'll go and photograph one of the ones that are no longer being used.

Thee trays are the 'saucers' for big rectangular pots, and I put a plywood 'T' at one end to give them a bit of an angle. There are holes drilled in the lower end where it touches the table for drainage.

The Catts were wired to the trays with soft wire, and then a single layer of bark chunks, 2" sieved was laid on the bark. I ended up watering them every day, to ensure they didn't dry out too much, as that single layer doesn't hold much water.

The roots grew prolifically. I one pic I am holding up the Catt to show the mat of roots that filled the trays, that mat is half a metre (about 20 inches) long, so they achieved that in less than a year.

Now this is the odd thing. There were 15 or more catts there, and NONE developed roots that wandered far. They all stayed below that single layer of bark, and if one did extend out when they hit the end, it pretty soon stopped growing. Also, effectively all the growth was uphill. (The plants were attached at the bottom of the slope, and there were almost no roots exiting at the bottom, - or the sides.

The tips of Catt roots are green, but they seem to have no interest in photosynthesising at all, preferring to stay in the dark.. odd, when you think about it.
In the end I decided that the trays were taking up too much time, and if I could get them up on mounts that would free up space for more orchids, which was clearly the way to go. So, I wired lumps of moss onto the branch mounts, put the orchids onto that and wired another layer of moss over the roots to keep them moist until new ones could grow.

and grow they did. However the odd thing was that the roots seldom grew out of the moss, and when they did, they tended to grow straight back into it again, a bit like a child's drawing of a sea serpent with its body in and out, undulating thru the water.

In fact, some of the mounts are starting to look like balls of roots all wound about and thru each other, while a few roots set off up the naked branches but these tend to stop growing after a while, and the tips collapse and die off as tho they are there to anchor the plant and not to have any other function.

My observations so far lead me to think that in Cattleyas at least, the green tips of the roots are not for photosynthesising at all, but act as a light detecting unit to detect when they have entered a patch of sunlight, which then triggers asymetrical growth in that tip to curve the root round so that it will hit something solid that it can burrow into, or attach to.
Thinking about it, that's what my phal roots do too, as are the three dubious Catts that are still in my shallow 25 cm diameter pots. Their roots burrow around in the pots like crazy, but once they leave the bark, and emerge into the light, they do not go far before they die off.


If I am right, then the roots are escaping the pots because they are trying to anchor somewhere, or are in search of new moist spots, and won't go far. If you have any that are going far, maybe the plant would be happier in a larger pot?

[No-Pro-mwa]

u bada that is a nice plant. I have been trying to find some smaller like bulb pots. My mini C. are growing all over the place.

Subrosa your plant looks really good also.

Thanks bil.

[Leafmite]

I agree! Nice looking walkeriana!

[u bada]

I'll take a picture of the new one I just potted up.

Thanks for the pictures and description, Bil... and for you direction of his attention, Estacion...

What i've observed with many catt's and catt alliance- and I was just discussing this with a friend recently, is that the roots will definitely cling tightly to a mount, which i think is beautiful... as opposed to say, barkeria (a catt alliance exception) and vandas, their roots just shoot every which way whether there's a mount or not, and sometimes dont even both to attach...

This need to find niches for darkness and moisture that bil describes may support why they do this. Also by clinging to the trunk/branch/mount that leaves only half the root to lose water through. Maybe this is because cattleyas come from areas where there is at least some period in the year when it is drier.

I usually do better with mounted plants even in my rather dry/warm climate, but now I'm spraying and dunking so many plants all the time, especially now it's been hot, that keeping things potted seems to be the way to go. (except I have like no horizontal space for pots lol) I always was taught and read that walkeriana's need things on the dry side, so learning it to be otherwise means keeping this one a pot may make sense.

Just looking at Subrosa's walk makes me think about how they must like having roots in moisture... really looks happy.

I'm potting things with orchiata now because I don't "believe" in repotting very often, had too many experiences where messing with roots sets plants back, but what I've learned with the neofinetias i got earlier in the year grown in a sphag mound, is you really have to water well, and give a couple days or even a week (depending on weather) to let a potted plant like cattleyas dry out a little.

[SFLguy]

Update on my growth:

It's a leaf!

[wintergirl]

Cute baby, love the angle, Healthy.

[bil]

Originally Posted by u bada

I'll take a picture of the new one I just potted up.

Thanks for the pictures and description, Bil... and for you direction of his attention, Estacion...

What i've observed with many catt's and catt alliance- and I was just discussing this with a friend recently, is that the roots will definitely cling tightly to a mount, which i think is beautiful... as opposed to say, barkeria (a catt alliance exception) and vandas, their roots just shoot every which way whether there's a mount or not, and sometimes dont even both to attach...

This need to find niches for darkness and moisture that bil describes may support why they do this. Also by clinging to the trunk/branch/mount that leaves only half the root to lose water through. Maybe this is because cattleyas come from areas where there is at least some period in the year when it is drier.

I usually do better with mounted plants even in my rather dry/warm climate, but now I'm spraying and dunking so many plants all the time, especially now it's been hot, that keeping things potted seems to be the way to go. (except I have like no horizontal space for pots lol) I always was taught and read that walkeriana's need things on the dry side, so learning it to be otherwise means keeping this one a pot may make sense.

Just looking at Subrosa's walk makes me think about how they must like having roots in moisture... really looks happy.

I'm potting things with orchiata now because I don't "believe" in repotting very often, had too many experiences where messing with roots sets plants back, but what I've learned with the neofinetias i got earlier in the year grown in a sphag mound, is you really have to water well, and give a couple days or even a week (depending on weather) to let a potted plant like cattleyas dry out a little.

Yeah, if that moss doesn't dry out you are screwed. If I HAVE to put moss in a pot, I like to put three small balls equidistant around the edge of the pot, put the orchid in the middle and fill with fine bark.
I have a neofinetia that I have shoved onto a mount. Not much leaf growth, but there are two massive roots winding about the mount.

Mounts do need more attention. I have quite a few. I go round each morning with the spray, there are I think about 60 and it takes me about half an hour to do them all.
My Vanda is just hanging there, I can't imagine HOW I would mount it as the roots are very long and would snap in an instant if I bent them.
So, to keep them damp for longer I have surrounded the roots with Spanish moss.
It looks like hair.