Help with my cats?

[malleeboy]

G'day Everyone,

Last year I acquired two cats via ebay from a grower in Queensland .. well, one is an LC, the other a BLC. The LC had the remains of a bloom, long since gone. I thought at the time that the bulbs on both looked somewhat shrivelled. I potted them both in good quality orchid mix, plenty of drainage and placed them above my cyms in my shadehouse, I guess about 80%. We had a fairly cool spring and only one really hot month in summer ... frequent days of high 30s into low to mid 40s. I watered pretty well every night and on really hot days, sprayed at lunchtime as well. I fertilized by spraying using the weakly/weekly method. When it became apparent that no new growth was appearing I moved the plants to a more sheltered position but we're now approaching winter and still no new growth. I've backed off on the watering to about twice a week unless it rains. On examination of the roots today I find no new white roots, in fact there doesn't seem to have been any change in 6 months. There are the odd green shoots but some of those have turned black. There is one greenish leaf on each plant but all bulbs are now quite shrivelled and some have dried up completely. I'm at a loss as to what to try now. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Cheers,
"malleeboy"

[jerrymeola]

The news is not especially good. The cats have been very stressed before you got them. The old roots are effectively dead and not supplying much nutrient to the plant.

I get this occasionally but really do not have a good suggest for recovery. For me it has been hit of miss, some live and some die.

I have a couple now I will try revieving in Super Thrive, a root hormone solution, that I like a lot on baby plants. It will be a while before I get a feel if it is helping. Also you may not be able to get it in Australia.

You might type treating it like it has no roots and wrap sphagnum around the roots and place it is a plastic bag to keep the humidity up. You can revieve a rootless pseudobulb this way.

You need to look for another supplier. He should not have sold you a plant like this.

It is my understanding that catts like to be watered and then dry out completely before being watered again. Perhaps you have been watering them too frequently. It might be worth trying to back off the watering a bit to see what happens.

[malleeboy]

Thanks Jerry & "orchid126". Orchid, I have backed off on the watering. Yesterday's inspection confirmed that they are not waterlogged although certainly NOT dry.

Jerry, if I decide to wrap them up as you suggest, do I then bring them inside with winter coming on? We can get down to zero or below frequently overnight but usually followed by nice sunny days 10-15c.

Cheers,
"malleeboy" [Keva]

my catts all on windowsills don't grow much during the winter, vegetative growth is sort of dormant. i water sparingly, little or no fertilizer through the winter, increasing both when i began to see an eye fattening up at the base of the newest pb. growth really heats up at the temps do here in n.e., usa. i would just try to keep it comfortable until spring returns.hope this helps

From what I understand, zero is death to a cattleya. They don't like to go below 50 to 55 degrees. I would bring them inside.

[jerrymeola]

For any living plant when the temperature gets below 32 F or 0 C the water in the cell membranes freezes and as ice expands it breaks the wall of the cell resulting in death of the cells.

I have no difficulty with cats going into the low 30s. My shadehouse this March went to 29 and while I did not lose many plants a large nember of leaves had dead spots on the leaf where it froze. they do not look to good but the flowering size plants are flowering and all show new growth. My personal collection only went down to 36 degrees and they look as if nothing happened.