Another question if I may.


I have three cats I purchased at the Orchid show at MOBOT two years ago.
One (Le Fire Dance 'Patricia') was in spike. It has rebloomed three times.
I have not repotted it.



The other two were seedling mini cats. They were in plastic pots about an
inch square and maybe three inches tall. The grower told me they should be
replanted in the fall and that they could bloom by then.



They were top heavy and I could hardly wait till fall as they were always
falling over. I put them in clay pots filled with Schultz Orchid Mix. [The
smallest pots I could find were four inch]



They have not done well. I keep hoping, but it is now time to try something
else.



They both suffer from lack of moisture. I water sometimes once, sometimes
twice a week. This is plenty for all my other orchids.



One appeared to die, but in the last fifteen months has put out tiny
growths. There are four of them all less than 1/2 inch tall.



The other did not die back and it has put out a couple of growths. But, it
is a very pale green and very wilted all the time.



I am considering repotting with a couple strands of sphagnum in the planting
mix.



Does anyone have a better idea??



Does anyone know where I might find smaller pots?? I like clay or ceramic as
the weight keeps them from tipping over.



Thank you for any suggestions you may offer



Ben

Any nursery has small clay pots, or maybe California (where I live) is just
more consumer oriented than the rest of the world. As an alternative you
could reuse your plastic pots, and poke more holes in them with a hot nail.
That way the moss you'd use to repot them in would breathe more.

A seedling trick may help you . Use carpet padding. Put your small pots,
if you can find them, on top of a wet sheet of carpet padding. The padding
keeps moisture and humidity up around the small seedlings. Seedlings are
usually sold in moss anyway, so I'd go with your gut instinct and repot them
in moss in clay, put the whole kit and kaboodle on a sheet of wet carpet
pad, and then treat them as you had been, being very careful not to
overwater. Remember the pad and moss will hold a ton more water than the
previous mix. Do not overwater.

IMHO the vendor who told you that a seedling mini cattleya would bloom in a
1 inch pot should be shot. Or at least never bought from again.

K Barrett
(BTW it should be Lc. Fire Dance 'Patricia'. )

"Ben Lurkin" wrote in message
link.net...
Another question if I may.


I have three cats I purchased at the Orchid show at MOBOT two years ago.
One (Le Fire Dance 'Patricia') was in spike. It has rebloomed three
times.
I have not repotted it.



The other two were seedling mini cats. They were in plastic pots about an
inch square and maybe three inches tall. The grower told me they should
be
replanted in the fall and that they could bloom by then.



They were top heavy and I could hardly wait till fall as they were always
falling over. I put them in clay pots filled with Schultz Orchid Mix.
[The
smallest pots I could find were four inch]



They have not done well. I keep hoping, but it is now time to try
something
else.



They both suffer from lack of moisture. I water sometimes once, sometimes
twice a week. This is plenty for all my other orchids.



One appeared to die, but in the last fifteen months has put out tiny
growths. There are four of them all less than 1/2 inch tall.



The other did not die back and it has put out a couple of growths. But,
it
is a very pale green and very wilted all the time.



I am considering repotting with a couple strands of sphagnum in the
planting
mix.



Does anyone have a better idea??



Does anyone know where I might find smaller pots?? I like clay or ceramic
as
the weight keeps them from tipping over.



Thank you for any suggestions you may offer



Ben

On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 05:32:17 GMT, "K Barrett"
wrote:

Any nursery has small clay pots, or maybe California (where I live) is just
more consumer oriented than the rest of the world. As an alternative you
could reuse your plastic pots, and poke more holes in them with a hot nail.
That way the moss you'd use to repot them in would breathe more.

A seedling trick may help you . Use carpet padding. Put your small pots,
if you can find them, on top of a wet sheet of carpet padding. The padding
keeps moisture and humidity up around the small seedlings. Seedlings are
usually sold in moss anyway, so I'd go with your gut instinct and repot them
in moss in clay, put the whole kit and kaboodle on a sheet of wet carpet
pad, and then treat them as you had been, being very careful not to
overwater. Remember the pad and moss will hold a ton more water than the
previous mix. Do not overwater.

IMHO the vendor who told you that a seedling mini cattleya would bloom in a
1 inch pot should be shot. Or at least never bought from again.

K Barrett
(BTW it should be Lc. Fire Dance 'Patricia'. )

Ben -
The other thing you can do is to pot them in plastic, then set
the plastic pots in the clay pots and fill the surrounding area
with pebbles. That way the clay and the pebbles will provide the
weight to keep the pots upright. Do not make such a drastic
change unless there is NO way to prevent it. From a 1 inch pot
to a 4 inch pot is like putting adult clothing on a child. TOO
much too soon.

I also think the light color and 'wilt' are symptoms of too much
sun for that one seedling. Move it to a more sheltered spot or a
spot in the shade of a larger plant.

Good luck.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

I agree with previous responders, the 4" pots were _way_ too big for your
little ones. They look to you as if they are suffering from lack of
moisture, but I'd bet the reverse is true -- they've been staying way too
wet.

One of the most confusing issues that faces the new orchid grower is the
fact that over- and under-watering produce pretty much the same symptoms in
the foliage. If you don't water enough, it dehydrates. If you water too
much, it also dehydrates -- because you rot off all the roots and they can't
transport any water up to the foliage. When you have a tiny plant in a pot
too big for it, it's very hard to water correctly because the tiny little
plant can't drink all the water fast enough; so the top of the medium feels
dry, but it's still very wet down below. The only way I know of to tell
which problem you have is to look at the roots.

My suggestion is pull those plants out of the pots ASAP. If, as I suspect,
most of the roots are rotten, then just lay them on some of that wet carpet
padding previously mentioned, or a small bed of damp sphagnum, until they
start exhibiting more signs of life. Don't water at all; if your humidity
is very low, mist the foliage lightly every day or two. A dip in a root
stimulator like Superthrive or K-L-N might also be helpful.

As to what the vendor told you about blooming them -- I'd be surprised to
see a mini-catt blooming in a 1" pot unless it was about to bust the pot (in
which case I don't quite see why you were told to wait until fall to
repot -- unless that's when s/he expected new roots to be forming). But I
currently have a handful of mini-catts, in 2" pots with room to grow,
sporting flowers. [We don't use 1" pots, we go from compot to 2" nets,
sometimes 3" nets if the babies are strapping.]

Good luck with the rehab!

--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids

http://www.jborchids.com
"Ben Lurkin" wrote in message
link.net...
The other two were seedling mini cats. They were in plastic pots about an
inch square and maybe three inches tall. The grower told me they should
be
replanted in the fall and that they could bloom by then.

They were top heavy and I could hardly wait till fall as they were always
falling over. I put them in clay pots filled with Schultz Orchid Mix.
[The
smallest pots I could find were four inch]

I agree with previous responders, the 4" pots were _way_ too big for your
little ones. They look to you as if they are suffering from lack of
moisture, but I'd bet the reverse is true -- they've been staying way too
wet.

One of the most confusing issues that faces the new orchid grower is the
fact that over- and under-watering produce pretty much the same symptoms in
the foliage. If you don't water enough, it dehydrates. If you water too
much, it also dehydrates -- because you rot off all the roots and they can't
transport any water up to the foliage. When you have a tiny plant in a pot
too big for it, it's very hard to water correctly because the tiny little
plant can't drink all the water fast enough; so the top of the medium feels
dry, but it's still very wet down below. The only way I know of to tell
which problem you have is to look at the roots.

My suggestion is pull those plants out of the pots ASAP. If, as I suspect,
most of the roots are rotten, then just lay them on some of that wet carpet
padding previously mentioned, or a small bed of damp sphagnum, until they
start exhibiting more signs of life. Don't water at all; if your humidity
is very low, mist the foliage lightly every day or two. A dip in a root
stimulator like Superthrive or K-L-N might also be helpful.

As to what the vendor told you about blooming them -- I'd be surprised to
see a mini-catt blooming in a 1" pot unless it was about to bust the pot (in
which case I don't quite see why you were told to wait until fall to
repot -- unless that's when s/he expected new roots to be forming). But I
currently have a handful of mini-catts, in 2" pots with room to grow,
sporting flowers. [We don't use 1" pots, we go from compot to 2" nets,
sometimes 3" nets if the babies are strapping.]

Good luck with the rehab!

--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids

http://www.jborchids.com
"Ben Lurkin" wrote in message
link.net...
The other two were seedling mini cats. They were in plastic pots about an
inch square and maybe three inches tall. The grower told me they should
be
replanted in the fall and that they could bloom by then.

They were top heavy and I could hardly wait till fall as they were always
falling over. I put them in clay pots filled with Schultz Orchid Mix.
[The
smallest pots I could find were four inch]

I agree with previous responders, the 4" pots were _way_ too big for your
little ones. They look to you as if they are suffering from lack of
moisture, but I'd bet the reverse is true -- they've been staying way too
wet.

One of the most confusing issues that faces the new orchid grower is the
fact that over- and under-watering produce pretty much the same symptoms in
the foliage. If you don't water enough, it dehydrates. If you water too
much, it also dehydrates -- because you rot off all the roots and they can't
transport any water up to the foliage. When you have a tiny plant in a pot
too big for it, it's very hard to water correctly because the tiny little
plant can't drink all the water fast enough; so the top of the medium feels
dry, but it's still very wet down below. The only way I know of to tell
which problem you have is to look at the roots.

My suggestion is pull those plants out of the pots ASAP. If, as I suspect,
most of the roots are rotten, then just lay them on some of that wet carpet
padding previously mentioned, or a small bed of damp sphagnum, until they
start exhibiting more signs of life. Don't water at all; if your humidity
is very low, mist the foliage lightly every day or two. A dip in a root
stimulator like Superthrive or K-L-N might also be helpful.

As to what the vendor told you about blooming them -- I'd be surprised to
see a mini-catt blooming in a 1" pot unless it was about to bust the pot (in
which case I don't quite see why you were told to wait until fall to
repot -- unless that's when s/he expected new roots to be forming). But I
currently have a handful of mini-catts, in 2" pots with room to grow,
sporting flowers. [We don't use 1" pots, we go from compot to 2" nets,
sometimes 3" nets if the babies are strapping.]

Good luck with the rehab!

--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids

http://www.jborchids.com
"Ben Lurkin" wrote in message
link.net...
The other two were seedling mini cats. They were in plastic pots about an
inch square and maybe three inches tall. The grower told me they should
be
replanted in the fall and that they could bloom by then.

They were top heavy and I could hardly wait till fall as they were always
falling over. I put them in clay pots filled with Schultz Orchid Mix.
[The
smallest pots I could find were four inch]

I agree with previous responders, the 4" pots were _way_ too big for your
little ones. They look to you as if they are suffering from lack of
moisture, but I'd bet the reverse is true -- they've been staying way too
wet.

One of the most confusing issues that faces the new orchid grower is the
fact that over- and under-watering produce pretty much the same symptoms in
the foliage. If you don't water enough, it dehydrates. If you water too
much, it also dehydrates -- because you rot off all the roots and they can't
transport any water up to the foliage. When you have a tiny plant in a pot
too big for it, it's very hard to water correctly because the tiny little
plant can't drink all the water fast enough; so the top of the medium feels
dry, but it's still very wet down below. The only way I know of to tell
which problem you have is to look at the roots.

My suggestion is pull those plants out of the pots ASAP. If, as I suspect,
most of the roots are rotten, then just lay them on some of that wet carpet
padding previously mentioned, or a small bed of damp sphagnum, until they
start exhibiting more signs of life. Don't water at all; if your humidity
is very low, mist the foliage lightly every day or two. A dip in a root
stimulator like Superthrive or K-L-N might also be helpful.

As to what the vendor told you about blooming them -- I'd be surprised to
see a mini-catt blooming in a 1" pot unless it was about to bust the pot (in
which case I don't quite see why you were told to wait until fall to
repot -- unless that's when s/he expected new roots to be forming). But I
currently have a handful of mini-catts, in 2" pots with room to grow,
sporting flowers. [We don't use 1" pots, we go from compot to 2" nets,
sometimes 3" nets if the babies are strapping.]

Good luck with the rehab!

--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids

http://www.jborchids.com
"Ben Lurkin" wrote in message
link.net...
The other two were seedling mini cats. They were in plastic pots about an
inch square and maybe three inches tall. The grower told me they should
be
replanted in the fall and that they could bloom by then.

They were top heavy and I could hardly wait till fall as they were always
falling over. I put them in clay pots filled with Schultz Orchid Mix.
[The
smallest pots I could find were four inch]

Thank you all for responding. I repotted this evening. Here is what I
found and what I did.



But first, my orchid gh is a 55 gallon aquarium and with two Florissant
fixtures [four 40 watt bulbs]. I have a very small fan in it to circulate
the air. Usually, I put most out side for the summer; however, they did not
get outside this last summer. One of my Oncidium's is in bloom. Too much
light is not a problem.



On somebody's website, I read, a good way to water cats was with ice cubes.
The mini's would look much better when I could to remember to put ice on the
pots several time a week.



Tonight on removing from the pots I found, there were a lot of dead roots.
They were like a wilted woody stem; hard and brown. They went into such
shock when I repotted them last time that I am sure that is when they died.
There were also some healthy roots but I had hoped for more. There were
also some other things in there, including some wild life. I will start a
new thread on that.



For the larger plant I put some Shultz mix through a 5/8-inch screen to get
a finer mix more like what they came in. Then I mixed in some of the fine
stuff from the bottom of the bag. I planted it in a 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ plastic pot
that is 2 ¼ inch high.



For the little guy [there is not much there] four growths less than half
inch tall and roots about the same length, I put it on sphagnum in a small
plastic pot.



Thanks again for your help!



Ben

Thank you all for responding. I repotted this evening. Here is what I
found and what I did.



But first, my orchid gh is a 55 gallon aquarium and with two Florissant
fixtures [four 40 watt bulbs]. I have a very small fan in it to circulate
the air. Usually, I put most out side for the summer; however, they did not
get outside this last summer. One of my Oncidium's is in bloom. Too much
light is not a problem.



On somebody's website, I read, a good way to water cats was with ice cubes.
The mini's would look much better when I could to remember to put ice on the
pots several time a week.



Tonight on removing from the pots I found, there were a lot of dead roots.
They were like a wilted woody stem; hard and brown. They went into such
shock when I repotted them last time that I am sure that is when they died.
There were also some healthy roots but I had hoped for more. There were
also some other things in there, including some wild life. I will start a
new thread on that.



For the larger plant I put some Shultz mix through a 5/8-inch screen to get
a finer mix more like what they came in. Then I mixed in some of the fine
stuff from the bottom of the bag. I planted it in a 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ plastic pot
that is 2 ¼ inch high.



For the little guy [there is not much there] four growths less than half
inch tall and roots about the same length, I put it on sphagnum in a small
plastic pot.



Thanks again for your help!



Ben

Thank you all for responding. I repotted this evening. Here is what I
found and what I did.



But first, my orchid gh is a 55 gallon aquarium and with two Florissant
fixtures [four 40 watt bulbs]. I have a very small fan in it to circulate
the air. Usually, I put most out side for the summer; however, they did not
get outside this last summer. One of my Oncidium's is in bloom. Too much
light is not a problem.



On somebody's website, I read, a good way to water cats was with ice cubes.
The mini's would look much better when I could to remember to put ice on the
pots several time a week.



Tonight on removing from the pots I found, there were a lot of dead roots.
They were like a wilted woody stem; hard and brown. They went into such
shock when I repotted them last time that I am sure that is when they died.
There were also some healthy roots but I had hoped for more. There were
also some other things in there, including some wild life. I will start a
new thread on that.



For the larger plant I put some Shultz mix through a 5/8-inch screen to get
a finer mix more like what they came in. Then I mixed in some of the fine
stuff from the bottom of the bag. I planted it in a 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ plastic pot
that is 2 ¼ inch high.



For the little guy [there is not much there] four growths less than half
inch tall and roots about the same length, I put it on sphagnum in a small
plastic pot.



Thanks again for your help!



Ben

Thank you all for responding. I repotted this evening. Here is what I
found and what I did.



But first, my orchid gh is a 55 gallon aquarium and with two Florissant
fixtures [four 40 watt bulbs]. I have a very small fan in it to circulate
the air. Usually, I put most out side for the summer; however, they did not
get outside this last summer. One of my Oncidium's is in bloom. Too much
light is not a problem.



On somebody's website, I read, a good way to water cats was with ice cubes.
The mini's would look much better when I could to remember to put ice on the
pots several time a week.



Tonight on removing from the pots I found, there were a lot of dead roots.
They were like a wilted woody stem; hard and brown. They went into such
shock when I repotted them last time that I am sure that is when they died.
There were also some healthy roots but I had hoped for more. There were
also some other things in there, including some wild life. I will start a
new thread on that.



For the larger plant I put some Shultz mix through a 5/8-inch screen to get
a finer mix more like what they came in. Then I mixed in some of the fine
stuff from the bottom of the bag. I planted it in a 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ plastic pot
that is 2 ¼ inch high.



For the little guy [there is not much there] four growths less than half
inch tall and roots about the same length, I put it on sphagnum in a small
plastic pot.



Thanks again for your help!



Ben