Cattleya ?

[Sassismom]

What would you do with all these roots on this catt. that I recently bought. It's a noid but I loved the flower so I bought it.

[Sassismom]

Oops, sorry for the double pics.

[PhalPal]

Beautiful Noid!! I would trim them a little to make sure they are viable and then probably mount it with all those crazy roots.

[Sassismom]

Mount it? I've never done that before is it hard to mount this kind?

[CAWood]

Looks like a Blc. Chunyeah "Good Life".

[Leisurely]

I would do nothing until it has finished blooming and starts making new growth. At that time I would re-pot it into a larger pot. There is a likely-hood that it has no good roots in the medium and that is why so many aerial roots.

[PhalPal]

Pot or mount - it's just a choice. I have several large Cattleya mounted on big pieces of cork and they are doing much better than my Catts in pots. I have a 'Blc. Chunyeah #19' in a pot and it is not doing as well as the ones I have on mounts. This is my first full year of branching out to something other than Phals and Cyms so I am experimenting; I'm not the expert. So far, all of my Catt mounts grown both inside or out are doing much better than the potted variety of the same plant.

Leisurely brings up an excellent point - don't do anything with it until it is finished blooming and is showing some new root growth activity. This is especially vital if you decide to mount it. I'm curious - why do you think you have rotten roots? If you have dug down and KNOW you are rotting roots I would repot now regardless of the blooms. I would much rather shorten the life of a flower than lose the entire plant.

[Brooke]

Catts just do that - they let their roots wander wherever. You can remove any wandering root that doesn't green up when you water it - if they green up, they are good.

If you mount, it will "probably" need to be sprayed every day. If you decide to pot it up, keep the wandering roots on the outside of the media. If you put a catt root that has developed the much thicker vellum that captures the moisture in the air, they will "probably" rot.

New roots can be encouraged to enter the media if you stay on top of them. New roots will adapt to the media before they develop the thicker vellum and will live happily enclosed in the media/pot.

Don't be surprised if the older roots are dead. Catts lose their viable roots as they age. It is a normal process. It is maintaining the roots on the newer growths that is essential.

If possible, wait for the new growth/roots before repotting. Repot as soon as the roots appear and be careful not to break them. Many catts will not regrow new roots if they are broken off - some will, but I wouldn't want to test it. Many catts put out new growths and don't develop roots until sheaths appear.

If you decide the plant needs to be repotted now, be careful with the watering until you see the roots growing. Like PhalPal, I would rather save the plant than have it bloom and die. Good luck with whatever decision you make.

Brooke

[Sassismom]

No I don't think rotten roots on this, I just wondered about all the roots out of the pot. It has finished blooming and I sure hope it's not another with rotten roots. I've had my share of phals. and a suspected oncidium. Since I mention it, does anyone know what to do with an oncidium if the roots have rotted. It has very small new growth, but I haven't check the roots. What are they supposed to look like?

[Sassismom]

Thanks Brooke. I'll let you know what I do. I might try mounting if I can find anything to mount it to.

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by Sassismom

What would you do with all these roots on this catt?

I can't touch them to see if they are all healthy, but for the sake of illustration I'll assume they are. I would:

1) leave them as they are until I repot next (after the flowers fade)
2) when you repot I'd moisten them first so they're pliable, remove all dead roots, and put all these arial roots down into the pot. I'd choose the smallest size pot that can comfortably accommodate the root mass.

[Sassismom]

Kevin, it has finished blooming quite some time ago. How do I tell if the roots are healthy on this, I'm not familiar with cattleyas at all. Just love the flower.

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by Sassismom

How do I tell if the roots are healthy on this?

Firm, crisp and whitish is healthy. Grey or brown and mushy is rotted.

[brookn]

The Onc. will have fine white or green roots, you can easily tell if the roots on these are bad for the most part. I squeeze them very gently to see if the roots are good. If it has a new growth, it should have or start producing roots from this new growth. Use good culture, and it should be fine.

[Sassismom]

What exactly do you call good culture? It has no new roots or good roots, but it does have very little new growth.

[brookn]

Good culture:

AOS | Oncidium

The conditions it needs to grow well. If it does not get what it needs, it won't grow. I had to learn the hard way with my Oncidium by horribly killing my first one. Well at least I felt it was horrible, and I am sure the plant did also .

[Sassismom]

Well then maybe that's the problem, it doesn't like where I've had it.

[Sassismom]

It says keep the potting medium dry until new roots form. Would this apply in this case as well?

[Sassismom]

Oh by the way I forgot to mention one important thing I discovered...no good roots.

[brookn]

Hmmm, I am not sure about the no good roots, and keeping it dry. I have always kept mine well watered, well, at least since after I killed the first one . Perhaps someone else has an opinion. In the case of the small one that fell off the main plant, it really had no good roots, and I kept it watered as if it did. This one is in a bark mix that dries very quickly. It had a new growth growing off two very small (one leafless) pbulb, and has produced lots and lots of new roots off of the new and old growth, but I am not sure how common it is for old pbulbs to grow new roots. Also one pbulb was partially rotten, and I potted it slightly above the mix and treated with cinnamon spray to dry out the rotten part. I had another with some rotten parts to a pbulb (they both arrived this way), that I put directly into s/h and treated the rotten part with Bayer 3 n 1. It's pbulbs have plumped up, and it's growing roots like crazy. The rotten parts have dried up. It has surpassed the growth of the others in bark as far as I am concerned, and the pbulbs look amazing. I am considering putting some others into s/h. So I guess to answer the question, I would not withhold water from an Onc. but someone else may have a different opinion.

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by Sassismom

What exactly do you call good culture?

Good culture means providing the environmental conditions a particular orchid needs to thrive. In your case, with a cattleya, you can get a culture sheet from AOS | Home which will tell you what temperatures, how much eater, how much light,etc., etc. your cattleya needs.

[brookn]

Kevin I said that already . Well, I said something very similar!

[kmarch]

Sorry Brookn....I got a little confused by this thread I thought it was about cattleyas then somewhere along the line it seemed to change to oncidiums....

I'm going to leave this thread in your capable hands from this point on and take my confused self elsewhere.

[brookn]

Yeah, she asked in midthread about the Oncidium, and I took it from there lol. I let the more experienced grower's of Catts get the other parts though. If Catts come up again please take over, mine are all babies.

[Sassismom]

Sorry for the confusion Kevin, by switching subject in mid thread. Thanks for the help brookn.

[brookn]

I just hope that it helps your plant recover, nothing like Onc. blooms, and lots of them!

[Sassismom]

I agree, I only have 2 of them and I'd hate to lose one.