cattleya with yellow patches on leaves

[NancyG]

My cattleya has this problem and the pseudobulbs eventually turn brown. Awhile back I received several orchids and I think one came with the black rot desease and passed it on to this one. I removed what I thought were the deseased leaves and pseudobulbs and repotted. It seemed to be doing fine and then this yellow leaf problem started. It is developing new leaves. Any idea what I should do?
Thanks

[mayres]

Any additional information you can post will help people give you better information - picture, what it is planted in and how long ago, how do you water, what and how often you fertilize, what kind of light you are giving it (where is it), etc.

[NancyG]

I live in South Florida. The cattlayea is in a clay orchid pot in orchid medium repotted about 2 months ago. I water every two to three days. I check for moisture by sticking my finger down the inside of pot so I'm careful about over watering. I haven't fertilized for about a month. It's outside. Gets about an hour of direct sumlight from 9:30 to 10:30am. The rest of the time it is with my other orchids and plants on a plant stand. It has good circulation and is outside on our deck under a veranda. The color of the leaves are a light green but the pseudobulbs have shrunk. This is my most expensive orchid and have had it for more than a year. It bloomed in April. All my other orchids are doing well. The Dendrobriums and Vandas are all blooming along with the Onicidium. This plant puzzles me.

Thanks, Nancy

[mayres]

Hopefully the moderator (jerry) will give you some good info soon - he is a commercial grower and lives in Florida too. I'm not an expert on Catts, but I'm going to guess you may have repotted during a time when the roots were not actively growing which is not good (?) and it looks like it will probably want some more sunlight too. You might try some superthrive to revive/stimulate the roots and see if that helps. mike

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Nancy, can you find a friend or relative with a digital camera? I think this really needs a picture to determine very much about what is going on. We need a picture of the whole plant, and then some close-ups of the problem leaves. If you can find the camera, try to have good light on the plant. Maybe outdoors in bright shade, and then check the camera's display to make sure it is properly exposed. Cynthia

[NancyG]

I'm having trouble uploading the image. It didn't work following Dave's instructions.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Nancy, send me your picture. If you have trouble sending me the picture, turn on your 'receive emails from other members', and I will send you my email address. Cynthia

I think watering a cattleya a couple of times a week is a bit too often. I live in New Jersey and I only have to water my cattleyas once a week as they like to dry out before being watered again. Our climate is much drier than yours is, I would think.

[jerrymeola]

Considering the problems with rot on cattleyas this year you seem to have little to worry about.

Black rot, if you had it, would spread and kill most cats in a few days. A famous grower of cats once said that all cattleyas have rot - it the plant grows faster than the rot it lives and if slower it dies.

I rate the health of my cats by new growth. You have new growth so the plant is doing OK. Black rot will often attack the new growth first and that is a bad sign.

You trimmed the leaves and bulbs of the plant you thought were bad and re-potted. The stress will often cause the plant to discard old leaves, when new growth is available to take over the support of the plant. It is not unusual for up to all of the old leaves to die as new leaves grow.

Actually my best personal orchids have only growth that started in my care and have lost all the old growth over about two years. Plants grow and discard old leaves.

Yellowing is the natural death of a leaf. Just be cocerned about the health of the new leaves.

[NancyG]

thanks alot