Potting a Cattleya

[Nancy]

My husband brought home a new cattleya. It's very healthy but it needs repotting because the newest growthis growing over the side of the pot. To describe the plant, I'd have to say that it has multiplied its pbs with every spurt of new growth. What I now have are seven new growths with leaves at the front of the plant, and about seven leafless backbulbs behind. How should I repot this? I assume I take take the backbulbs off. Do I divide the plant, or should I just plant it in the middle of the pot with the newest growth toward the rim of the pot? I hope I have described the plant accurately. It's SLC TAngerine IMP. It's common for a cattleya to multiply around the edges. I just have never had one do it before. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[kmarch]

Nancy,

Do not take the backbulbs off. These backbulbs store energy for the rest of the plant and as they are alive and have leaves (active clorophyl) they continue to make energy for the plant. There's also no compelling reason to divide the plant so don't bother with that. More new growths mean more flowers when it blooms. It is very common for Cattleyas to "branch" in this way, putting out one new lead, then 2, then 4, then 6 or 7, etc., etc.

When you repot, don't put the new growth near the rim, doing so will make the next cycle of growth grow over the edge of the pot. Instead, position the plant with the backbulbs near the edge of the pot so that the new growths grow out into the pot. Choose a pot big enough to allow room for about 2 years' worth of new growth.

Let us know how the repotting goes!

cheers!

[TZ-Long Island]

Go ahead and take the LEAFLESS backbulbs off it if makes the plant fit in the new pot better. If you don't want a huge plant divide it.

[kmarch]

I disagree with TZ. Do not remove anything that is still alive. You shouldn't have leafless backbulbs on a Cattleya anyway as Cattleyas retain their leaves. Having said that though, even leafless backbulbs store energy reserves for the rest of the plant. There is no benefit (and potential risk) in cutting off living tissue that is benefiting the plant.

[fred]

I would have to agree with Kmarch here
I would not remove the backbulbs so the plant will fit better in a pot
go to the next size up pot

[Nancy]

There are a couple backbulbs that are turning brown and soft/ I'll remove them only. Thanks for the advice. You've been a big help. I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge of this hybrid. I'd love to see what the flower looks like. I can't find a picture of it on the internet, only hybrid crosses with it as part of the cross.

[Orchidflowerchild]

Here ya go, Nancy: Orchids - SLC 17

Be aware, however, that the colours will likely range from red to clear yellow with everything in between...

-Cj

[Nancy]

Now I'm not sure what to do. I think the only safe thing to do is to remove the backbulbs that are turning brown and soft and to repot the rest. I don't know why the plant lost all those leaves. It happened before I got it. I'll try it this way until it presents problems, and then I will cut them all off if I have to. Thank you all for the input.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

OK, my turn to weigh in on this one. There is a rule of thumb on the retention of older bulbs. You should have a minimum of three mature bulbs IN A ROW. This means that there should be the most recent growths that are mature and the next two oldest, 1 year old and two years old. So, if you have room in the pot, I personally prefer 4 bulbs in a row. The exception I make to that is if the plant has been having a hard time for some reason, and you want either to have more reserves for the new growth to come to draw on, or any of these older growths were particularly undersized or damaged. The older leafless bulbs are marginal for adding new food (only a small area of green, the bulb itself) but are a reservoir of energy to draw on when the new growth starts. The reason for leaving 3 or 4 bulbs is that under most conditions that is enough reservoir to assure that the new growth will mature adequately and flower.

Now about your plant. If it is truly putting out 2 new growths on every growth from the previous year, your plant may have a hormonal problem, probably brought about by some chemical treatment in the past, something that it may grow out of with time. So, the important question is, do the new growths reach a mature size. I had the problem with a couple of plants with this that had progressively smaller growths every year until they became very thickly growing seedlings, from what once were mature plants. If your plant is maturing the growths adequately, your plant is probably genetically producing those growths and all is OK and ignore the following. For my plants, the one that I retained got a reduction in new growths by knocking off all but one new growth from each previous growth. Now, after about 2-3 years of this, the plant is blooming sized and the strange condition has ceased.

[TZ-Long Island]

Some clones put out two leads most of the time, especially if the plant is large, but as you say, if the growths are not full size there is probably a problem. Fusarium stress will cause the same abnormality as the plant tries to outrun the damage it is causeing in the rhizome, but the new roots will be dieing and you will see purple when you cut the bottom of the rhizome.

Three leaved pbulbs in a row minimum to allow a new growth to full size and bloom well. No leaves = no support.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

If leafless pseudo bulbs could provide nothing, we would not be able to grow new plants from leafless, rootless old pseudobulbs, but I do it all the time. It is a question of how borderline the plant is for survival. If I should happen to wind up with a single leaf on a recent growth, and two bulbs with no leaves, and that is all (this kind of thing happens all the time if you grow enough orchids), then you would certainly want to keep those two leafless bulbs. It would probably cut the flowering time in half.

[kmarch]

Nancy,

If you back bulbs are soft and brown then they should be removed as they could possibly have a bacterial rot which can spread. It sounds like the plant may have been very stressed before you got it. While Cattleyas normally do not loose their leaves, they may in cases of extreme stress. So...
1) go ahead and remove the back bulbs that are brown and mushy
2) go ahead and repot
3) get a Cattleya care culture sheet either from this forum or from American Orchid Society so you can give your plant the culture it likes.

With this and a pit of patience, hopefully your plant will be fine.

[Nancy]

I repotted the cattleya leaving five leafless backbulbs. The first bacbulb is growing a beautiful green root, so I figured theis was a good one to leave on the plant. The plant has not been putting out imature growths. All pb's with leaves have flowered. I have one new growth coming. The plant basically looks pretty good.

[Nancy]

I think I may be out of the woods now with this plant. The new growth looks excellent. It's starting to turn up and continues to grow. Thank you all so much for all your help.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

One comment I should have added about leaving backbulbs. The reason you don't leave a lot of unnecessary bulbs is that each additional useless bulb adds another inch or so diameter to the required pot size. If you are growing a specimen plant, one that tends to put out 2 growths for each previous growth, the oldest bulbs hold the whole thing together, and the plant, because it is growing sideways in addition to lengthwise, will need the extra pot size anyway. What you really need more than anything else is a minimum root mass in a certain size pot so that the plant will be efficient at sucking the pot dry in a reasonable length of time. If you have a single string of bulbs stretched out across a very large pot, the pot will not dry anywhere near fast enough, unless you are using a mix that controls moisture very well, like semi-hydroponics is supposed to do. A big pot of bark with very little root mass in it is a recipe for disaster.

[Nancy]

I've found that to be a problem. The plant has seven pbs in front of a few backbulbs. It's very hard to place this plant in a pot where each one of these growths will have two years worth of growing room. Any suggestions?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Pot the plant in an under-sized pot, then move it to a larger pot when needed and fill in front of the new growths with more potting mix. This way you won't disturb the roots when 'potting up', but you must base any need for repotting on the condition of the older mix, not the new.

[Nancy]

This plant was in a group of untended catts. All required repotting and were sort of tangled up in terms of growths and roots. Any idea what could cause a group of older pbs to use their leaves? Whatever the problems was it seems to have corrected itself, because the seven newest pbs have leaves and have bloomed. I've repotted it twice, the best way I can. I'll guess I'll repot it next year into a bigger pot but I don't want to disturb it anymore. It looks content for new. Thank you all for the help.

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by Nancy

This plant was in a group of untended catts. All required repotting and were sort of tangled up in terms of growths and roots. Any idea what could cause a group of older pbs to use their leaves?

Cattleya leaves are largely persistent (they dont' fall off). Leaf loss is usually the result of some harsh treatment/conditions of some sort: neglect, insect infestation, or possibly a harsh chemical treatment of some sort (as for insects).