Care for Rlc & Blc Versus NOID Cattleya?

[realoldbeachbum]

My South Florida orchid haul includes some Blc's and Rlc's. I know they are Cattleya types, but not sure if they need any special care from the NOID Cattleyas that are currently in my collection. Any advice is appreciated! Very Merry (and healthy) Christmas to all.

[Roberta]

Well, the devil is, as usual, in the details. Blc and Rlc both cover quite a range of hybrids. Parentage affects the fine points of culture, especially if you are pushing the envelope of what a particular hybrid will tolerate. However, pretty much all of them do well under intermediate conditions (night temperatures above about 55 de F/13 deg C) with bright light, and with medium/container combination that permits drying between waterings. Depending on parentage, rooting can be before bloom or after bloom... for deciding when to repot, just watch for new roots (not new growths). When you see them, do it.

[SouthPark]

ROBB ------- merry christmas to you! If your existing noid cattleya are doing nicely, then the chances are that all or most of these extra ones you have will do nicely too - using the same care given to the existing ones.

In the tropics over here, my main approach is to provide adequate moisture to the roots and to provide conditions that allow the water in the pot to keep moving along ------ moving along the roots, and moving along within the media itself. This is helped along by natural and gentle air-movement through the media within the pot.

Having enough holes (and big enough holes) at the bottom of the pot and airy-enough media are considerations that I make over here.

In general, if the Blc and/or Rlc orchids do just fine with regular watering method (just watering all of the media), then it's nice and convenient to use the regular style of watering.

My most trusty method that I use over here, which I generally use here - is watering the outer-band region of the pot, which works nicely in the tropics. Bulk of water dumped into the outer-band region, and a few little sprays or sprinkles of water closer-in to the centre of the pot. This sort of helps prevent long-term soggy root-drowning conditions down in the dark depths of the pot. And if growers do unpot catts and find the centre core roots rotting and dead/brown and soggy -------- then this outer-band watering method can help avoid that sort of thing.

The above isn't the only way to compensate for unwanted conditions. Using shallow pots, or making adjustments to the amount of water applied (and other methods) can be done or considered too.

Go ahead and grow your new catts in the way you do with the no-id catts. We're definitely here to help if you notice anything that you might need help with!

[realoldbeachbum]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Well, the devil is, as usual, in the details. Blc and Rlc both cover quite a range of hybrids. Parentage affects the fine points of culture, especially if you are pushing the envelope of what a particular hybrid will tolerate. However, pretty much all of them do well under intermediate conditions (night temperatures above about 55 de F/13 deg C) with bright light, and with medium/container combination that permits drying between waterings. Depending on parentage, rooting can be before bloom or after bm.. for deciding when to repot, just watch for new roots (not new growths). When you see them, do it.

Thanks Roberta. For the near future I will treat them just like my NOID's, which are progressing soooo S L O W L Y, but at least are progressing!!

It is difficult for me to let them dry out between waterings, but I will try. These will probably not get repotted until Spring unless I see new roots popping out. Really appreciate your advice!

---------- Post added at 03:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:13 PM ----------

Thanks for the advice, SP. I currently use your watering guidance (actually printed a colored copy and posted it above my potting counter). It keeps me from overwatering the roots. Really appreciate you putting it out there for us newbies.

My current NOID Cattleyas are doing well -- only one blooming at the present time, but have several ready to pop out.

I am just concerned if the "R" versus the "B" in the name indicate different culture requirements. As for now, I plan to just treat them same as my NOIDs and patiently WAIT for them to respond. (I am not a patient person - these orchids are testing me!)

[Roberta]

The "R" vs "B" is just a change in nomenclature... Rhyncholaelia digbyana (the source of fringy, floofy lips) was Brassavola digbyana. Same species. More recently, "Brassavola" was reserved for species with narrow, succulent leaves (like Brassavola nodosa and its cousins) So whether it's a Blc (Brassavola Laelia Cattleya) or Rlc (Rhyncholaelia Laelia Cattleya) or some of the other variants like Cattlleanthe Ctt that we got when some of the former Cattleyas (like bowringiana and skinneri and aurantiaca) got reclassified as Guarianthe, these are all Cattleya-tribe hybrids, and can be treated the same.

Because I grow most of these outside, I drill down to the species level to look for cold-tolerance. The genus names are pretty useless for making that determination, it's the species combinations that help me make the binary decision "outside" or "greenhouse" But nearly all of them grow under intermediate conditions, where lows are above 50 deg F/10 deg C. (Of course there are a few exceptions that need to be warmer, there are always exceptions in the orchid world, doesn't change the general advice for most of them)

[estación seca]

The only ones really different in culture have a lot of what was formerly called Sophronitis coccinia, now Cattleya. It is a cool growing species. Primary hybrids and even hybrids with 25% coccinea can be very sensitive to heat. This is where red pigmentation came from in Cattleya hybrids. It is also used to breed windowsill and miniature Catts. Coccinea plants are quite small, their growth often sprawls, and they often have lots of stem and leaf pigmentation. Hybrids with these characteristics should be kept cooler but still well lit.

[Roberta]

Still, a matter of degree... A lot of the Slc's were bred for windowsill growing (a Sunset Valley Orchids specialty) and so they're forgiving of just about everything. They grow inside, they grow outside, they don't take up a lot of room, and often bloom twice a year.

Where I find a big range is with Potinara (Rhyncholaela/Brassavola, Sophronitis, Laelia, Cattleya) Where the Sophronitis part is very small, they can be rather intolerant of cold. The real minis (Sl, Sc in particular) that have a lot of Sophronitis may be a little less warmth tolerant. For the indoor grower, these are all "fine points"... that's what I was talking about when I get down to the species composition level to figure out what I can get away with.