BLC Family Cattleyas

[atcrosby]

I bought these small cattelyas at Lowes. ( I know I have to stop going there but they have some interesting orchids sometimes.) They were in one inch pots and fairly small.

I have several questions...

1) How many years does it take for this family of orchid to normally bloom?
2) The plants appear healthy and are sending up numerous leaves from the medium. These leaves though stay folded for what I think is a prolonged period of time. Is this normal?
3) I have these planted in clay pots using medium sized bark. I water weekly by soaking the entire pot in water / superthirive / fertilizer mix. The medium is allowed to dry between waterings.

Is this the proper way to handle this variety? Also, when the instructions say dry, do they mean dry or damp ?

[philliptan]

As far as I know, it takes cattleyas 3 to 4 years to go from seedling to bloom.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Are you sure it was 1 inch, maybe not 2+ inches? At any rate, figure 4 years, 3 if you are really good (optimum conditions), 5 if you are learning along the way. When they say dry, they mean very close to dry, not moist, or clearly damp. I know this is hard on you, so the best way to do this is to put them into very small pots so that they dry fast, and you can water often. Over potting causes all sorts of problems. Rarely I will have a plant that does not open its leaf. If you catch it early, you can give it a start at opening, but be careful not to nick it or you could transfer virus. Put a little cotton in the fold to hold it open a bit. If you wait too late, the leaves will harden in the closed position. This happens when the plant is not adjusted to its evironment yet. Cynthia

[atcrosby]

i have them in clay pots and medium size bark. They are drying out faster now that the air is getting dryer with the fall season. I have discovered the clay pots tend to be cold damp on the outside when the mix is moist (via bamboo skewer method) and dry/warm when the medium is dry.

The leaf finally opened but I have been letting the medium really dry out more than is absolutely necessary. Luckily they are able to survive this mistake so now I am watering more frequently and the plants are responding.

The Cattleyas were all 1-2" in size at purchase so I have a few years to go!

[jerrymeola]

Your question brings up a frequent question, whose answer is constantly changing.

I assume you are talking about the bagged plants hanging on a rack. These are called 2 1/2 inch pots.

The "old' common rule was cattleyas take 6-7 years from seed and about 3-4 years from this size. Well Hawaiian growers have been hybridizing for early production and one supplier puts his potting dates on all his sale items. His 1 inch plugs (not normally sold retail) flower in 2 years consistently. 2 1/2 inch pots flower in 1 year.

This matches much of my results in that I bloom 2 1/2 inch pots in 6-12 months and my 1 inch plugs are starting to produce sheats (no viable flowers yet) in only 18 months.

Hknsa Sogo Doll is a good example. Out of 50 2 1/2 inch pots I purchased in April almost half have already produced flowers and the rest are close.



Stigma Kelly Lea is another example of a 2 1/2 inch pot in April that is in flower in my kitchen right now.



Both of these flowers are strong flowering plants. Sogo Doll blooms 2-3 times a year and Kelly can bloom continuously.

Now the down side is that buying at Lowe's Will probably add a year or more to these times and rescuing damaged orchids can add several years to blooming.

What happens when an orchid is neglected is that the plant struggles to survive and it begins to hibernate. Getting the plant to grow from this point can be a considerable amount of time.

When a plant is damaged in my greenhouse from lack of water, too much water, freeze or heat (all have been problems this year) I find that they are set back as much as a year. To get early blooming the growing conditions have to be good and NOT VARY. A commercial greenhouse has automatic watering and fertilizer. People look at them all day. Most do well and the few that are missed are relegated to next years crop.

This year we have had 76 inches of rain this summer in Fort Myers Florida. All these overcast days have reduced the normal amounts of sun and my cattleyas do not seem to be growing as fast as last year.

Many of the plants in big box stores are not handled well and the stress can be considerable. I have one test plant from WalMart bags that has not bloomed in 4 years when I can normally get this variety to bloom in one year.

Fortunately for you atcrosby is that you have new pbulbs growing. Active grow is a very good sign that they have not been stressed. They had probably just arrived.

In general you should support your local nurseries for consistent quality. Not to mention that they charge 35% more at Lowe's and WalMart then I charge for the same plant.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Hi Jerry. This idea of dormancy seems very interesting. Since I get a lot of bare root plants, many from south of the equator, and have had some set backs with my mix experiments (finally getting a good recipe), I would say I have seen a ton of this kind of reaction in plants. Plenty of seedlings going a couple of seasons with no increase in size of growths, and more mature plants producing smaller grows for a while. I am doing a lot of experimenting with hormones since I started with Power Clone from a hydroponics store and found I was getting much earlier starts on my imports. I am continuing with experiments, as I have found that both of the most useful types, auxins and cytokinins can be purchased cheaply and separately (tho not sure yet about comparative concentrations) as Tomato Set. The one Tomatoe Set I found with auxin (Indole...) also has some giberilic acid in it. I am thinking I will expand my experiments into seeing if I can get faster up sizing in a few seedling, some of which I have as multiples from the same pod. Now, this will probably only be of interest to me, because when all is said and done (or at least early on), I will likely be unable to separate out all the various factors involved of which there are many. But, if I see any improvements, I will try to isolate the factors later, as I really want the improvements now. Hope I don't kill anything. Cynthia

[atcrosby]

Thanks!

Considering these are my first orchids, I am going to believe it'll be a 4 year plan since they are the victims of my inexperience.

For young plants, do you use small bark or the one in the store recommended for adult cats?