cattleya question

[sara_caulk]

I have a cattleya that is a couple years old and has new growth with roots overhanging the pot. There is nothing happening on the old growth (other than dust!). My questions are: How do I repot this plant? Should I repot it? Do I cut the new growth and start it in another pot or do I just up-pot the whole shebang? If I cut off the new growth, does the old growth ever flower again? Is my inexperience glaring?

[atcrosby]

My personal opinion it to just put it into the next size bigger pot. The plant in the pot is a single plant and as it grows bigger it rewards you with more flowers. The reason it is not flowering is probably the amount of light it is receiving. Cattleyas demand a lot of light so that they will bloom. What do the roots look like? Are they healthy? Cattleyas are used to the medium becoming dry before watering again.

I have just learned the larger plants are called specimens but am trying to figure how many decades it takes to get them to that level.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

#1 - Only repot when the new growth is just starting its flush of new roots. Repotting at any other time could cause grave problems. On a temorary basis, the up potting, without distubing the old mix is OK, but watch the watering, it is possible to over water more easily with a bigger pot, as it drys more slowly. Also, the decision to repot in the future should be based of the old mix. If you can push your finger down into the old bark mix, avoid the roots, please, the plant should be repotted properly at the next opportunity (all old mix removed).

#2 - Always leave a minimum of three mature pseudobulbs in a row on the plant counting from the latest mature growths. If the plant has produced multiple growing points, a growing point further back relative to the other growing point(s) may not need a full 3 bulbs behind it, as long as it is still connected to the rest of the plant.

#3 - When you repot, the mix must be pressed very firmly into the pot so that the pot can be lifted by just holding onto the plant and lifting.

Your new growths may be smaller than the growths when you bought it, but hopefully they have stabilized at some particular size. If they continue to get smaller each year, you may need more light or other inprovements in culture. For Cattleyas, only the new growth has the potential to bloom, but sometimes 1 season old growths that failed to bloom will bloom late. This is particularly the case for plants that produce 2 growths in a row per year, but only bloom once a year.

Tom, specimin plants are usually genetically better for growing as specimins because they start multiple eyes more often than not. When you buy Catts, look for ones that have multiple growing points, as this is probably genetic with them.

[Ellen]

Cattleyas bloom only once on each pseudobulb, so if the old ones have bloomed (or not bloomed), your hope for flowers is on the new pseudobulbs. If the new pseudobulbs are badly overhanging the side of the pot you can repot so that the roots of the new p-bulbs are in the medium. Don't cut off the old p-bulbs unless they are obviously dead. They are still important to the plant for food and water storage and photosynthesis, and help support the new growth. When you repot you may not even need a larger pot, just repositioning of your plant in the old pot. Try putting the oldest p-bulb right up against the side of the pot. If there's room for the roots of the new growth to be in the pot, you don't need a larger one. You can repot a catt any time that it's got new growth and new roots forming.

The way to tell if a p-bulb is going to bloom is to look at the tip of the bulb, inside the highest leaf. If you can see the tip of the bulb and it looks like it just has a little flat button on it, that p-bulb will not bloom because it was too young or conditions weren't right. If you can't see the tip of the bulb, this means it hasn't finished growing yet and might produce a sheath. If you see a triangular thing that looks like a single thin leaf sticking up from the bulb, this is probably a flower sheath.

Tom: Catts typically don't take too long to become specimen plants, certainly not "decades". With good conditions, most hyprid catts should have multiple flowering growths within a few years of your acquiring them as "seedling size" plants. If you acquired the plant as "near blooming size" or "blooming size", this will obviously happen even sooner. If you have a young plant, you may notice that each p-bulb is progressively much larger than the last one. This means that it is still maturing, getting up to full size.