Second pic

If the phals. in my collection looked like that I'd be cheering.
What is on the name tag of the Cattleya? Maybe too much shade for a Cattleya.

This post was edited by arthurm on Sun, Oct 12, 14 at 20:38

They look vibrant and robust. Very happy plants.

The Cattleya is a Laeliocattleya Dinard 'Blue heaven' AM/AOS. It's the one I had a pic of a few threads ago with the wrinkled/crimped spike sheath. You can see it on the largest psuedobulb. It never developed. I think it's still a bit young for flowers. Leaf color seems okay and it's growing fast.....it's just that all the roots are growing straight out the sides and only a couple decided to turn down into the bark.

Now I see what you were saying about the light. The pictures were taken on my indoor driving(golf) mat in a dark room with a flash. They are getting a lot of light where they live by the window.

Here in humid Florida the humidity is never the same all day. On a typical sunny day the humidity drops to 45 to 50 % slowly. Then slowly climbs to the humid high just before sunrise. So at the drier times of the day the roots may be thinking go diving into the pot. But if it stays even and high there is no need of the pot. My theory.

As it is it may be perfect for mounted plants...

My thought is that the roots don't like the potting medium. Was the bark soaked before use to get rid of the Tannin? I soak all my bark 3 or 4 times in a bucket of water for 2 or 3 days each time. If after the first soak the water looks like weak tea then continue soaking drain after 2 to 3 days and refill with fresh water till water is clear after.

In the past when I used bark, I'd never soak it and it was never a problem. I don't use bark much anymore.

What do you use now? I've always used bark, but if there is a better way, I'm all for it. What I'm using now is a combination of pine bark, sponge rock, hydroton and stalite. Mostly bark.

Match the potting material to the way you water. Because I am heavy handed with the hose I use lava rock in terra cotta pots. I did use a mixture of bark, charcoal, and pearlite. As it breaks down it hold more water. I'd kill some with too old mix. My method works for me. I imagine some would kill their plants if they were in plastic pots with bark.

Customize your potting material to match your watering habits. I told all my chids that they live in a mono culture. Either enjoy it, die, or leave. Fortunately there are vast amounts of plants like what I do. Certainly not all.

Be careful about imitating other growers. Frequently it is OK. But like my watering/potting mix will not be good with plastic pots...Or pots that will not transpire. Like glazed ceramics.

Good info. Being a newbie I'm learning by the dreaded bad experience method. When I started, my little plants were suffering from too little water. I increased water for all my plants and then the big ones started getting too much water. I assume that's a fairly common mistake for a new grower.

Your comment on potting material breaking down makes me think next spring I should consider repotting the big ones that I over watered to give them a fresh start next year. At least the ones I know may be suffering from wet feet.

I seem to be having good growth with my methods, but there are a few things I will look at. I do use plastic pots, so more aeration holes for the bigger plants should help. I can also reduce the humidity just a bit so I get sufficient drying between watering. since I work full time, weekend watering is the only convenient time, so watering once a week is what they are going to get and my adjustments will have to help that schedule. I can also increase the air movement in the growing area a little to help with aeration. To make sure I don't underwater the little guys, I can change to a smaller size bark mix so they don't dry out so quickly.

Anything else I should consider?

Alan

Join your local orchid society. Experienced growers in your climate will help you avoid mistakes. They know the plants to avoid and the ones that do well. With your good results you should be able to give as well as take. There will be speakers to learn from and vendors will tempt you.

Buy a blooming plant once a month. Then you will have blooms all months of the year.

When you go to the meeting, stand up and say hello, my name is Alan and I'm an orcoholic. A healthy addiction!

Good luck.

Hi
I find almost all epi orchids do that. In my case I let them do what they will Two rescue phals mounted on a roxburghii
have roots 5 feet from the plant mostly down but two feet up. Vandas hold the record so far bit over 6 feetlol Given enough time they will actually pull themselves up the tree.
Have often wondered what they look like in the wild particularly where there is competition from other plants
gary

Good to see all the comments from other growers. This is exactly what it should end up as lots of thoughts and ideas and find what works best for you. Great idea to buy a flowering plant each month- i did that years back and now have flowers all year round. And as for Vandas, i don't think its possible to keep their roots in anything. I mount mine on a hardwood branch hanging in the shadehouse and the roots usually attach themselves to the branch.

Just under a month I bought six blooming orchids, with my rebloom phals, my living room looks like a flower shop! but I really hope ( and will?! ) cut back until next June to go to orchid show!

Tanie

You need to keep in mind that you see the aerial roots, but not the ones in the pot. It may seem like it's jumping out the pot or not liking the medium, but I bet there are more roots in there that out here. This is just what orchids do in nature, and it's actually a sign that they are happy. My roots dry up soon after shooting for the air because my air is dry much of the year.

Buying a plant in bloom monthly is perhaps a good way of building a collection but it will not give you a flowering plant every month going forward because they do not necessarily reflower in the same month. They are forced to flower at staggered times, so they can be sold all year round instead of once or twice a year.

The mass produced orchids are the most likely to be force flowered. Like the ones at the big boxes. Especially the phals. Quality vendors are less likely to force flowers.

Well, I do not know how you define "quality vendors" - if you mean those that do not force flowers, then yeah, "quality vendors do not force flowers" is a of course a true statement, but also a fabulous example of circular logic.

Fact is, everybody wants to sell orchids all year round, and out of bloom ones do not sell, or sell generally for much less.

In addition, vendors (quality vendors or otherwise) is one thing, and growers is another. Vendors often just get their plants from growers / wholesalers, in bud or bloom, forced all year round, and then the vendors turn around and sell them right away. Are those "quality" vendors or not? (rhetorical question)

Finally, I did not and do not imply that forcing flowers is in any way unethical or wrong. In fact, as a consumer, I like seeing a nice flower online and be able to google it and buy a plant in spike/bud right away in any month of the year.

Other than a rare offering at home depot, all of mine come from trades and "vendors". And my personal definition of venders is growers. Sorry for the confusion.

Forcing flowers is a result of a small inventory. When a grower has reached a quantity of plants that produce more than enough for current sales, there is no need or benefit to force flowers. Exclude the growers that sell to big box. All the growers I know have been well established and have created large inventories to provide unforced flowers. And most of my purchases are plant of blooming size not in bloom.

I've never bought an orchid from a non grower. I know of only very few vendors that do not grow. Most of my awareness is of the growers.

Also my recommendation of buying a flowering plant a month worked fine for me. I had flowers from the same plant flowering the same time the following year. I got lucky and avoided the forced flowers. Some plants flowered additional times of the year also.

Some have survived for up to 20 plus years and their schedule of blooming has been consistent. With exceptional weather there have been a few misses.

My thread so I had to jump back in. This plant (same as picture above) has not bloomed yet and probably won't bloom for a year or two, but it is one of my favorite plants. Why.....because it is healthy as can be and it's growing like a weed. I have proved to myself I can take an exotic plant, keep it happy and make it grow. That to me is the true thrill of raising Orchids. Producing happy, healthy plants. If I was worried about the instant gratification of having flowers all the time, I would have started growing roses. If and when I have nurtured this plant long enough, it will reward me with a flower or two letting me known the journey with this plant has reached maturity and if I continue to care for it, I will be rewarded again. Remember, the journey is just as important as the destination.

Alan

The problem your going to have is as an indoor grower, those roots will keep going straight out until they hit something which is going to be a wall or shelf or another plant. It will also be hard to water them in place without making a mess and you will likely break them if you move them to a sink every week to water.

I would get a clay pot about 2" bigger than the current pot , drop the existing pot in the center and gently tuck the roots into the space between. The roots will attach to the pot and be more manageable. Look up Nick's pot in a pot posts, he has some nice examples of plants he has done this with.

Good point Lumpy. They will attach to something. If you have very robust plants you will have a lot of flying roots. So either way, with good health there is going to be roots. Or with the good humidity and happy roots I bet it would like to be mounted on a piece of cork. But that will still have arial roots.
I just went to look at a few of my orchids and my best plants have roots everywhere. With translucent tips like yours.
If you tried to force them in a pot they would break. Even if you soak them in water for an hour.

here is another bunch of roots.

Thank you. That was the original purpose of the thread. To figure out how to control the lateral growth without interfering too much with what the plant is trying to do with its own growth patterns. The watering is not so much of a problem as space is and I don't know yet how the plants like being crowded with other plants. I'll just have to wait and see. If my understanding of Orchid (Cattleya) growth is correct, wondering roots as they are in nature are desired over potted ones, so helping them with that objective would be best as long as I have the room to let them grow that way. The idea of moving the more prolific root growers to slabs sounds interesting. I'll have to think about that for a bit, because then watering would become a problem.

Do not mount this orchid. Lots of pics. on the net with some of the whole plant.

My opinion is not enough light.

If you are concerned about the roots, try Nicks pot within a pot.

Some "Cattleyas" do best on a mount.....I have hundreds of them and nearly all are in pots or even a pot within a pot.

Here is an example of one I had a similar issue with. It was hard to get a photo at night but I'm holding it by it's leaves so you can see that the roots anchored the plant to the new pot. Since there is no mix between the pots they are still aerial roots, but they are contained between the pots. This makes it easier to care for since I move it outdoors in summer and have to water it indoors in the winter.

My roots were only an inch or so out of the original pot when I did it so it went in easy. Your roots are a bit longer so I would use a bigger pot so you don't snap the roots. You could also throw a couple rocks in the bottom to keep the inner pot in the center.

SM- That is one awesome mount.

Nice. It looks like you started with a basket. I'll have to try that when I repot some of my young ones next spring.

I did check the roots on the one pictured above and yes, they are very rigid and do not want to bend. I think for this one, as it is now, I have two options. First, I could let it just do its thing and see how sprawly it gets. Might be fun to see how far out the roots go. Second option would be to get a really big pot, set it in and let the roots naturally start bending as they hit the walls. After a bit I should be able to reduce the pot size and continue to let the roots grow in a circle till I got the external pot size down to a reasonable foot print. Sounds like a trip to Lowes to check out pots.

Soak the roots by submerging the plant for 15 minutes. Less root breakage...

Lumpy, that is one of my oldest plants. Brassavola Nordosa. I was very new. The plant was patient with me and taught me a few lessons. I planted it facing me not the sun. In 2 years the plant grew around the post and started blooming facing the sun. Thats when I knew I needed to find out what the plant wanted. Not what was convenient for me. It got me thinking of what was the experience of the plant in nature and try to offer as close as you can...
Because it is attached, the best I can do for it in extreme weather is tie a towel around it. It takes it all. Very tough. I've always thought that if us humans showed up a million or 2 years later that the brassavolas would have naturalized in Florida. They just needed more time. I love the night time sweetness...

This post was edited by shavedmonkey on Wed, Oct 15, 14 at 22:06

Brassavola nodosa has very little connection with the "Cattleya" subject under discussion.
Even here B. nodosa has to be grown on a mount. In fact my plant was grown on a chunk of hardwood for ages, then when it started to outgrow the mount, the mount was put in a shallow pot without fiddling and it has to outgrow the pot before I'll place it in a larger shallow pot. All this happening high up near the apex of a glass-house where Lc. Dinard would probably die.
I am very wary of giving detailed culture advice to growers in the frozen north.

I think in 2 million years they could naturalize here in New Jersey. Established plants like that become interesting even without flowers, I really like the textures and patterns of the roots and leaves.

Unfortunately my plants are forced to accept life in northeast fighting off squirrels and dealing with Africa hot summers and Arctic cold winters. Their greatest evolutionary achievement is figuring out a way to get me to take care of them.

Lumpy, arrived in NY ages ago for the Autumn Colours Tour. When we arrived it was a sweat box and then a cold front went through, not a wimpy cold front like here. A real cold front! Lol.

Thought I would through in an updated picture. Lumpy, you were correct. Watering is becoming a problem. Won't fit in the sink any more. This one has to go to the shower now for it's weekly drink. But....as long as it's happy, I'm happy.

Does Genius have a record section for longest Cattleya roots? I may be competitive here soon.

Alan