Rootless baby cattleya growing new roots

[Rross]

A couple of months ago, I bought a young Lc. Chyong Guu Swan 'Ruby Lip' plant on eBay. It was in a tiny container, in a medium I didn’t like the look of. I repotted it immediately and 10 days later, it looked so terrible, I unpotted it again and cut off all its dead roots - leaving no roots at all. Since then, I’ve had the plant sitting in a vanda pot, suspended over water, under a piece of wet kitchen towel, and it’s finally forming more roots. I don’t want to repeat my mistake. When and how should I repot it? It’s midwinter here in Sydney and the plant is in bright and indirect light in a dummy room. I’ll try and upload a photo of it, taken this evening.

[Rross]

Here’s a larger photo of the new roots on the Lc. Chyong Guu Swan 'Ruby Lip'

[Dusty Ol' Man]

If it's forming new roots, now would be good.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Rross

I don’t want to repeat my mistake.

Nice work with getting the new roots to form. The first thing to do for addressing the 'mistake' is to know what possibly occurred last time. Eg. did the old roots drown, or the orchid was too cold ------ ie. cold plus wet roots for relatively long periods of time can be problematic for the roots. And roots that aren't adapted to watery and/or low oxygen environments can be an issue too.

So for this time ----- maybe use relatively small pieces of bark (eg. orchiata bark) and could add a bit of perlite into there. eg. 5 parts bark and 1 part perlite. Mix it all up fairly evenly before doing the potting. And make sure that the bark is pre-wetted ----- having a moist state (but not saturated). When potted - just aim to keep the bark moist/damp. And have a warm enough environment, preferably not a dry environment. Some gentle air-flow in the growing area will be beneficial as well. And no direct sunlight.

And every once in a while ----- make sure to provide some mag-cal and also some fertiliser ------ but don't provide strong doses. Weak doses is enough. For my little orchids of similar size ------ once a month application is all I provide for mine.

[Rross]

Ideally, how long should the roots be to pot up the plant? They seem so tiny.

[SouthPark]

You could pot it even now if you wanted to. Just keep the media consistently damp ----- and don't have it soggy for long periods of time.

[Rross]

Ok. Here goes!

[SouthPark]

All the best! Be gentle as possible with the roots during the potting. Have the roots in contact with the damp/moist bark. For the day time ----- don't allow the orchid to stay cold for most of the day. It's ok at night .... ie. cooler at night is ok .... but the orchid needs to be warm for a fair bit of the time in the day. Try to keep the 'bulb' regions just above the surface level of the media ---- if you can that is. Or just not too deep.

[Rross]

Thanks. It’s planted. Now it’s just a waiting game.

[SouthPark]

Nice!