Sickly nearly dead Potinara Cattleya
 

Hello. I need help with this orchid. I have had it for over 5 years and it has steadily declined mostly after I repotted her last year. She's VERY slowly growing new roots but I thought it would b e faster. She's also growing new leaves but they're very small (due to stress?). I have her under grow lights and spray with sea kelp and a rooting hormone (several times a week) called KLN. Is there any hope or should I stop? She's been under the grow light around 6 weeks now when I installed and I am hoping they're working. Thank you in advance :)

With the new roots coming there is a fair chance your Catt will survive, but stop with the kelp and hormones. It's a little like giving caffeine and sugar to a patient in a coma to wake them up. A little goes a long long way with hormones. I don't know what issue may have led to the plant going downhill in the first place, but it just needs normal good care and some time and patience at this point.

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

That plant is rooting, and it can recover and grow. But you probably won't get another chance.

The KLN is fine, but it doesn't help to use it more than once a month. I also suggest you not spray nor mist plants, but rather water all the medium thoroughly when you do water

Your other plants are very dry, shown by the wrinkles in the leaves. You're letting all of them stay dry too long before the next watering. I suspect this is the main problem. Under lights, in large bark, you might need to water Catts like that every 2-4 days. If they have plenty of air at the roots, like with large bark, you can keep them moist.

With adequate watering they should perk up. Catts grow slowly and recover slowly. Each new growth will be a little larger than the previous.

Excellent recommendations provided by PMM and ES already.

For regular roots not adapted to watery environments ------ then too wet is no good. Also for regular roots --- dry for relatively long times is no good too.

Also - note that you have bark media - two pots of it. And you have sphagnum media for this orchid that is growing new roots.

Dry bark can take a while to get wet. And so if you are watering dry bark ------ then that bark can just repel the water, and the water will run out of the pot, and the plant can die of dehydration. This leads to the method of inspecting the bark down in the depths of the media - to see whether it is dry. It also leads to the idea of pre-wetting bark (if that bark is very dry) before potting an orchid ------ but only potting when the bark is not super saturated with water.

As for the sphagnum ------ new roots that grow into very wet sphagnum moss can survive and do well ----- but is a good idea to not allow the media to get super cold - especially during the day time. And in some countries ---- it can get super cold during both the day and night time (in winter time). Cold and wet can be detrimental to roots of many orchids.

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Thank you! Would you recommend repotting the seedling with the dry leaves in spagnum? I also have a mature Cattleya I just purchased (not in photo) in orchid bark from repotme.com. Should I change that medium or just water more often? Thanks! I'm much better with other orchids; these worry me for some reason.

The orchid that you have potted in sphagnum already ------ you could choose to leave it as-is. And if you look after the orchid well ------ maintain good growing conditions, and not making the sphagnum sopping ultra wet, then the new roots will well grow into the sphagnum and do really well.

But - once again - avoid cold plus wet for relatively long periods of time ---- such as every day and night being cold plus wet. It's ok to have warm during day and cold at night. But not consistently cold for both day and night.

I recently had a cattleya arrive that was growing pretty much in 100% sphagnum as well. And it is known that catts can grow in 100% sphagnum. But it's necessary to have an appropriate watering schedule ----- and know just how much water to add. Also - have to keep in mind that sphagnum can break down eventually - which can present certain issues. It's a learning experience - just like anything else.

One option is to allow the orchid to grow lots of nice roots in the sphagnum - and then, in future you could choose to change to a new medium of some other kind.

The other recommendation is to use firmly packed sphagnum. Avoid loosely packed sphagnum if you can. Firmly packed behaves like a nice sponge - and distributes water around more evenly.

Don't repot the sick plant. You'll damage the new roots. Repotting is stressful and should be done as little as necessary.

Do some reading and decide what medium you want to use. They all can be used successfully if you learn how to use them. They all have good points and bad points.

I only repot Cattleyas as they just begin new roots. I wouldn't repot the new plant unless it is just beginning new roots, and the medium looks old and broken down.

I think the potting medium is not the right one for cattleyas. Spagnum moss keeps way too much moister, the roots start rotting, they don't absorb nutrients as much, the leaves start looking dehydrated, and so on. Spagnum moss also tends to get acidic rather fast, and acidity accelerates all these negatives effects on the plant. I agree with the post that advises against repotting, however the plant is clearly in need of change, so I would move it into bark, LECA and charcoal mix, or something along these lines. I have been growing cattleyas for over a decade, and none liked medium with spagnum moss in it.

Sphagnum is a valid choice, often the best, for a weak nearly rootless plant while it recovers. Once it begins something closer to normal healthy growth then it does need to move to a more appropriate mix for long term Catt health.

It is true what PMM mentioned. Firm packed sphagnum - can really help things along. And keep the sphagnum moist - not saturated.

Also true about what innak mentioned as well. In the very long term ------ breakdown can occur. So short term (eg. seedling growth or for root recovery) ------ can use sphagnum moss - firm packed.