The Orchid Garden

help with Catt?

Question:

:   Dale, help me out here, will you?  ’A toad on a cupcake’?  I think : screaming would be in order here, not marveling!  Just MHO Personal idiom for remarkably contrasting components.

  Ok, I’m with you now<g.  I was worried about your personal eating habits there for a bit!   Regards,   Karen   www.rollanet.org/~mknisbet/ Before you buy.

Response:

Yes Mike, that’s the normal growth/maturation process. As the new pseudobulb matures or ‘hardens’ the sheath will dry up. Many times scale or mealy bugs or other vermin will hide under that sheath, so the common habit is to allow them to dry then peel them off. The trick is to wait for the new growth to harden. The sheath acts as support for the new growth. Without that support the new soft growth will bend, break, warp etc. And I don’t want to read a post from you some time in the future that you were cleaning the sheathes off your new p/bulbs and snapped all of them off. They’ll break very easily when they are young, and no amount of scotch tape will fix it! The snap they make when they break is akin to celery snapping. If you hear it you’ll never forget it. You’ll know you are well and truly screwed. Remember, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So, let the growth mature and then remove the sheath if you are so inclined. But, [shrug] many people don’t take the sheathes off. You should remove the sheathes for display in a show. Now you just have to wait for the flower sheath to form!! Some catts will form a flower sheath, some won’t and some form multiple layer sheathes. If you notice the same drying out of the flower sheath (and can see shadows of the flower buds inside the sheath) its OK to slit the sheath open. Many times the sheath will start to degrade as you describe (Browning, spotting etc) before the flower embryos inside can mature fully. Slitting or plain old tearing the sheath will keep any moisture collecting inside the sheath from condensing around the flower embryos and rotting them out. Bummerooski man. *G* Sometimes immature catts will just throw up empty (blind) flower sheaths. Sometimes catts which don’t receive enough light will have blind sheaths too. Pretty cool that you have your own domain name K barrett – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi all. I have a very mature C. Lynn Spencer . It is actively growing new leaves, is beautifully green, is growing new roots, and seemingly very healthy. This is the only Catt I have, and the only one I have ever had. One of the new and most actively growing leaves is perhaps a foot long now, and the "sheath" that it grew out of is deteriorating. It went from green, to yellowish, to yellow, to brown with dark spots. No other area on the plant looks like this one, but the leaf is growing extremely well out of it. Since I’ve never had one of these before, it occured to me that it might be a problem, and also it occured to me that it might be a normal part of the maturation process. The tissue underneath this sheath appears healthy, and swollen like it might be a new pseudobulb, so I thought – maybe this is now new psuedobulbs grow. I don’t know, so I thought I’d ask. Its conditions – it gets about 3 hours of direct sunlight per day, till about mid-day. Then it gets bright flourescent lighting for the remainder of the day. 85% humidity during the warmest part of the day, and up to 95% at night (I do have a hygrometer). The daytime temp reaches a high of 82F and nights get down to 68F (heater on a timer). The photoperiod is about 14 hours. I also have Phal. Den. and Onc. specimens growing well in this same environment. This is all in my indoor grow room, which I’ve just decided to remove the guest bed from!  Suprise, surprise, right? Plus I just found a great orchid/rare plants greenhouse less than 10 miles from my house. This last fact is surely a sign of trouble. Anyway, thanks for the answers in advance. Mike

Response:

: You should remove the sheathes for display in a show. Why? Because the judges <like that? Because it <detracts from the bloom they’re supposed to be viewing and judging? I feel that the subtending leaf sheaths illustrate the nature of the plant and the rough visual contrast of the plant vis-a-vis the blooms is the most salient aspect of their allure!

Knock yerself out, Dale. ‘Have fun with your hobby’ is the first rule of hobbies. K Barrett

Response:

:   Dale, help me out here, will you?  ’A toad on a cupcake’?  I think : screaming would be in order here, not marveling!  Just MHO Personal idiom for remarkably contrasting components.

Response:

Hi all. I have a very mature C. Lynn Spencer . It is actively growing new leaves, is beautifully green, is growing new roots, and seemingly very healthy. This is the only Catt I have, and the only one I have ever had. One of the new and most actively growing leaves is perhaps a foot long now, and the "sheath" that it grew out of is deteriorating. It went from green, to yellowish, to yellow, to brown with dark spots.

Mike…this is natural for Cattleya to do…the sheathing that protected the new bulb usually dies as the new bulb finishes maturing.  Once the new growth is mature, you can gently peel back the dried, dead sheathing to expose the pseudobulb underneath. Most growers seem to prefer to do this, to eliminate places for bugs and other pests to hide. — Prem – Animator, programmer, and orchid and fossil nut extraordinaire… – DNRC Title: Minister of Lightwave 3d Plugin Design Foolishness – Home – http://www.PremDesign.com "We in our foolishness thought we were wise He played the fool and He opened our eyes We in our weakness believed we were strong He became nothing to show we were wrong." "God’s Own Fool" – Michael Card

Response:

I feel that the subtending leaf sheaths illustrate the nature of the plant and the rough visual contrast of the plant vis-a-vis the blooms is the most salient aspect of their

allure!   I agree completely.  I don’t think the plant is nearly so interesting ‘all cleaned up’.  But I’m a little at a loss about the following: Who hasn’t marvelled at the sight of a toad on a cupcake?!

  Dale, help me out here, will you?  ’A toad on a cupcake’?  I think screaming would be in order here, not marveling!  Just MHO   Regards,   Karen   www.rollanet.org/~mknisbet/ Before you buy.

Response:

: You should remove the sheathes for display in a show. Why? Because the judges <like that? Because it <detracts from the bloom they’re supposed to be viewing and judging? I feel that the subtending leaf sheaths illustrate the nature of the plant and the rough visual contrast of the plant vis-a-vis the blooms is the most salient aspect of their allure! Who hasn’t marvelled at the sight of a toad on a cupcake?! It occurs to me that if Mike had seen orchids at a show that hadn’t been over-groomed (my concept) he’d have known that it was normal. I’m aware that cooties hide in the sheaths, but even average vigilance and inspection make one aware of an incipient pest problem. Of course, I must admit that I view any subjective judging milieu with a jaundiced eye. Dale

Response:

Hi all. I have a very mature C. Lynn Spencer . It is actively growing new leaves, is beautifully green, is growing new roots, and seemingly very healthy. This is the only Catt I have, and the only one I have ever had. One of the new and most actively growing leaves is perhaps a foot long now, and the "sheath" that it grew out of is deteriorating. It went from green, to yellowish, to yellow, to brown with dark spots. No other area on the plant looks like this one, but the leaf is growing extremely well out of it. Since I’ve never had one of these before, it occured to me that it might be a problem, and also it occured to me that it might be a normal part of the maturation process. The tissue underneath this sheath appears healthy, and swollen like it might be a new pseudobulb, so I thought – maybe this is now new psuedobulbs grow. I don’t know, so I thought I’d ask. Its conditions – it gets about 3 hours of direct sunlight per day, till about mid-day. Then it gets bright flourescent lighting for the remainder of the day. 85% humidity during the warmest part of the day, and up to 95% at night (I do have a hygrometer). The daytime temp reaches a high of 82F and nights get down to 68F (heater on a timer). The photoperiod is about 14 hours. I also have Phal. Den. and Onc. specimens growing well in this same environment. This is all in my indoor grow room, which I’ve just decided to remove the guest bed from!  Suprise, surprise, right? Plus I just found a great orchid/rare plants greenhouse less than 10 miles from my house. This last fact is surely a sign of trouble. Anyway, thanks for the answers in advance. Mike

Response:

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