Is it fractured or is it broken?
 

This came to me from Sunset Valley Orchids in July 2020. It is JH 38 Cyc. warscewiczii 'Leo' AM/AOS x Cycd. Freckled Sweetheart 'Samantha' AM/AOS.

It completed its growth and went to sleep at the appropriate time. I planned to repot up to a 2-liter bottle for this growing season, and awaited new growth.

I forgot how top-heavy these are when dry. The round 3" / 7.5cm plastic pot has a layer of packing peanuts at the bottom, then a layer of sphagnum moss.

Twelve days ago, before it began waking up for the spring, I bumped the shelf. It jumped off and hit the ground, breaking the new growth into 3 pieces: bottom with old roots, middle, top.

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I knew the bottom would survive and grow if I could prevent it from drying out from all the exposed tissue. I wondered whether the other two pieces would produce growths as well. I know this group of plants will make growths from dormant meristems well above the base if the base dies or is eaten.

To prevent drying out, I dipped all the cut ends in melted candle wax, and put the plant back with the others.

As you can see, the bottom and middle pieces did not dry out. They are each pushing a new growth. It is a little harder to see in the photo, but the top piece has a swelling new growth forming at the node facing the camera.

I'm going to pot up the three pieces separately.

I don't recommend doing this intentionally - yet.

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Candle wax is a great idea! Knowing my clumsiness, I have a good (?) feeling that my catasetinae will fly off my shelves. Thanks for sharing.

What an interesting experiment! Thanks for sharing!

Looks like its taken this setback in its stride and is moving forward rapidly.
I hope you will keep showing progress pictures.

Nice work, es!

Oh, that's interesting. I agree, I'd like to see update pictures, particularly whatever the top piece ends up doing. I wonder how it'll grow roots, if it does.

Maybe when you repot, you should put a big handful of smooth rocks or marbles in the bottom instead of styrofoam. That might help keep it from being knocked over again, and I imagine it would drain about as well.

These come from Sunset Valley Orchids potted like this. A round 3" / 7.5cm pot has one layer of foam peanuts on the bottom, then a layer of sphagnum moss. The seedling is potted in the moss. It's not advisable to repot them on arrival, since they're in active growth; people grow the plant in the pot for the first season, then repot the next spring when they begin growth.

Since these are again tiny plants, I'm going to put the top two pieces into the 3" pots with sphagnum moss - but with something heavier on the bottom, like rocks from my garden. I'll put the bottom piece into a PET bottle.

I found the photos I took right after I broke the plant, and added them to the first post in this thread.

I just wanna know what fragrance the candle was. Esthetically, I'd have probably chosen a different color.

I don't know. I'm not a candle person. Somebody gave me a candle in a jar years ago, so the stench is almost gone. It's some shade of reddish brown. I kept it for power outage use.

If you want to get me to leave a place, put out peach poutpourri or one of those plug-in electric stink oil things.

I looove candles. So if you ever want to give me a present, it’s a great go-to. No potpourri or plug in anythings! :biggrin::biggrin: