# Why would a normally unifoliate cattleya produce a bifoliate growth?



## ALToronto (Jul 12, 2014)

It's been happening quite a bit to my catts, and I wonder what the trigger is. I get a nice growth that looks like it will produce a sheath, and instead I get a second leaf. Is it the fertilizer? Light? Temperature? Collusion?


----------



## eteson (Jul 12, 2014)

It is in species or hybrids?


----------



## ALToronto (Jul 13, 2014)

Hybrids. I know this sort of thing can happen randomly, especially in hybrids of unifoliate and bifoliate catts, but with me, it's happening a lot. I have around 50 different catts, and this is happening with about 1/4 of them.


----------



## mormodes (Jul 13, 2014)

Well, I looked in Northen, the Bulletin and various google searches and no one really addresses a trigger or cause for this. They just say it happens.


----------



## eteson (Jul 13, 2014)

Does your hybrids have bifoliates in the ancestry?


----------



## cattmad (Jul 13, 2014)

this does happen, I find it more common with yellow and art shades, less so with the lavenders and whites, but will still happen randomly.

I have never been able to find a trigger as its always just a few plants do it here and there


----------



## maitaman (Jul 13, 2014)

Do you use Superthrive or other hormone products? They seem to have some effect on the type of growths produced. We noticed that some years ago before I moved to Panamá. The worst effect was making crosses much harder to get a "take," but we did note foliar differences in a number of them. Certain parents in the lineage can also cause a great incidence of crippled flowers. If used in conjunction with such products as Cygon it gets to be too much.


----------



## ALToronto (Jul 13, 2014)

I don't know (or care, really) enough about the ancestry of these catt hybrids to say which have bifoliate parents. Many of these are complex crosses (and most are from Cloud's Orchids).

I use KelpMax, which is a hormone supplement. I guess I have my answer! Do these hormones suppress flowering in favour of vegetative growth?


----------



## eteson (Jul 13, 2014)

Al, my question is because if in the ancestry they have bifoliates (and this is usual) you should not be surprised if from time to time they produce 2 leaves. It should not affect flowering.


----------



## maitaman (Jul 14, 2014)

The hormones generally used do not affect flowering to a great degree, except that they can cause a plant to refuse to set seed. It affects the pollen negatively, but to a much smaller degree. Back when I had Chadam Research we did a test over four years. _The effects are temporary_. Those things can be useful when used on newly replanted specimens, but take care. The plant can become, if to only a slight degree, unable to resist certain bacterial and fungal infections, and you have just cut or torn the plants. 
I haven't kept up to date to any degree since moving. We found that we could separate, clean and repot the plants, treat with a fungicide/bacteriacide, wait one day, then use the hormones for one treatment.
(We used swimming pool algicide. It was popular at the time.)


----------



## Catt Mandu (Jul 14, 2014)

I think practically every hybrid Catt alliance hybrid I have produces unifoliate growths sometimes, bifoliate growths at other times. I have one that also occasionally produces growths with 3 leaves. Right now, I have a Cattleya Wayndora that is normally bifoliate, but which is now producing a unifoliate growth. I think it is just due to complex genetics.

BTW, until this week, I have not been using kelp extract, so in my case I can rule that out as a factor.


----------

