Re-pot And other questions
 

New to Cattleyas..... Just purchased these lovelies from someone on Facebook. First question is, do they need to be repotted? I understand that cats like to be nice and tight in their pots but one of them is quite top-heavy. Also they have roots growing outside Their pots, although I think some of these roots are dead. One is in bark, which seems to be firmly attached to some of the roots, also with moss. My intention, whenever I do repot, Will be bark with some charcoal and may be perlite. Suggestions welcome. Lastly, with my other orchids I like to use net pots in other pots. I have had success by soaking for 15 minutes weekly or so, then thoroughly draining, Although I’ve read that cats like to be dry before watering. All help is welcome, thank you! So excited to try these orchids!!!

I'm surprised that you didn't get any replies yet! I have very little experience with Catts, so I'm bumping this so that other people will see it.

littleflower - they can be repotted.

When repotting - the chances are that some roots can break or become damaged a bit - which is normal. You can allow those damaged or broken roots to dry out a bit and seal up naturally before repotting.

When it comes to methods of watering where growers wait until the roots dry before watering ------ the reason isn't due to cattleya's 'needing to have their roots dry'. They don't really need to have a dry-out period under certain workable conditions.

Instead - it's to do with minimising or avoiding conditions of low oxygen-level water (or water film/layer) IN and ON the roots for relatively long periods of time.

Roots need oxygen to stay alive. And growing environments without adequate air-flow, combined with conditions associated with media type (and size) and pot type (size and drainage features) and watering schedule ----- can lead to unwanted low-oxygen-level water conditions in and on roots.

In general - dripping wet roots (or roots too wet) where water doesn't move much (or at all) can lead to roots dying - due to inadequate oxygen supply in the water for the roots (ie. roots using up all the oxygen, which doesn't get replenished fast enough due to not enough oxygenated water movement).

Some details at this link may be helpful too:

Click Here.

In general - having roots lightly moist but having adequate air-movement in the pot and media and around roots - is no problem.

But having roots in media that is dripping/soaking wet for relatively long periods of time (especially when air movement around roots is not enough, also leading to very slow or no water movement around in the pot or around the roots) - can lead to roots dying.

So - no matter what media or pot method is being used - the aim is to avoid setting up conditions where the roots don't get adequately oxygenated water.

Each grower will eventually have their own methods for achieving desirable conditions inside the pot that allow for very long-term healthy orchid growth. This is for orchids grown in pots.

One other thing to note is that - in the wild - in places where orchids grow in their natural habitat ---- many of those places are humid enough for orchid roots to absorb moisture from the air. For this case, orchids can get both water and oxygen very well.

For potted orchids, this can also mean - if the media is slightly moist (and not saturated or super wet), then the humidity inside the pot due to slightly moist/wet media should be enough to support orchid roots.

One possible benefit of occasional dry-outs of media and roots is to prevent or cut down on certain unwanted activity (eg. certain kinds of bacterial or fungal or algae activity). This is for potted orchids.

The other possible benefit of dry-out (provided that the media is able to dry at a satisfactory rate) is steering away from undesirable conditions - such as the long-time super-wet condition, where oxygen starvation can occur - leading to dying and rotting roots.

The above is probably not true. A cattleya can grow excellently even if roots are not tight in their pots.