Cattleya import from Brazil

[monocotman]

After the tale of woe from Istavan it’s nice to see an import that happened successfully.
This is the first post Brexit import I’ve seen.
These are all seedlings of species:-
Amethystoglossa select outcross
lueddemannina flammea x sib
mendelli alba x self
warneri ‘Santa Teresa ‘ x self
jenmanii semi alba x self
A very determined guy who has had previous experience doing this sent out a list earlier in the year to orchid societies. He was overwhelmed with orders. It’s probably taken five months for it to happen and he had some help from an orchid company in order to do it. The hoops he had to go through were ridiculous but in the end it happened and the plants are great.
He has an interesting way of establishing bare root plants. He soaks the roots in a bucket of water to which is added one or two tablespoons of ordinary sugar. Then pots up as normal. I’ve just tried it.

 

[dodidoki]

Congrats on this nice collection, have a good luck with them!

 

[My Green Pets]

Plants do look great! Drooling over your new mendelii alba...

 

[monocotman]

Thanks William, I actually bought two mendelli albas just in case of any issues with one.
I’ve not tried a bifoliate before so fingers crossed for the amethystoglossa as well.

 

[big923cattleya]

Bifoliates can be especially challenging!

 

[bullsie]

I believe it was in R. Northen's book, 'Home Orchid Growing', that described using the sugar water soak that was necessary when orchids traveled in crates in the hold of wooden sailing vessels. While journeying they would get soaked with sea water and take months to reach their destination. Come to think of it, doesn't shed a good light on modern transportation.......

 

[big923cattleya]

Soaked in sea water? I have no idea about that. However this sugar theory reminds me of a product sold years ago for much the same reason. It was called “Super Thrive”. It came in a tiny little medicine bottle, with little medicine dropper, and you were supposed to use a drop or two in water to act as a tonic. It was suppose to promote root growth. You soaked the plants in it.
Well I never noticed any benefit that could be traced to super thrive.
I wonder if that product is still around?

 

[Ray]

Soaked in sea water? I have no idea about that. However this sugar theory reminds me of a product sold years ago for much the same reason. It was called “Super Thrive”. It came in a tiny little medicine bottle, with little medicine dropper, and you were supposed to use a drop or two in water to act as a tonic. It was suppose to promote root growth. You soaked the plants in it.
Well I never noticed any benefit that could be traced to super thrive.
I wonder if that product is still around?

Super Thrive is certainly still around, and the company recently purchased Dyna-Gro, so all their products are now sold under the Super Thrive brand.

The Super Thrive stimulant is a concoction of a number of minor nutrients, but the significant stimulant is the synthetic rooting hormone, naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). NAA is a very effective stimulant, as is indole-butyric acid (IBA), which is combined with NAA in the Dyna-Gro product, K-L-N Root Grow. The problem is that in order to make the synthetic materials water soluble, they had to be converted into mineral salts, and those are not particularly chemically stable.

Dave Neal, who founded Dyna Gro, once told me that a brand new batch of K-L-N would be chemically active for about a year, if kept cool and dark. If kept at room temperature, that could drop to a matter of months, and if kept warm and sunny - as is often done when folks store their supplies in a greenhouse - it would be more like a matter of weeks.

I always got fresh K-L-N directly from DG back when I sold the stuff (I kept it refrigerated) and it worked great, but if you think about the product being transported cross-country in a truck, sitting in a distributor’s warehouse for who-knows-how-long, followed my more trucking and storage on the retailer’s shelf before you get it, getting fresh material is a crap shoot. (As an aside, after the discussion I had with Dave, DG started putting expiration dates on the bottles.)

Learning that spurred me into looking at natural stimulants, and I’m extremely glad I did, as that’s what led me to “discover” Kelpak, which is a much better and more stable product.

 

[tomp]

Thanks William, I actually bought two mendelli albas just in case of any issues with one.
I’ve not tried a bifoliate before so fingers crossed for the amethystoglossa as well.

The only issue with Bifoliates that I have found is their NEED to be repotted only when they start new (active) growth which can vary species to species. While that mandate is good practice for most CATTS it is particularly so for bifolates .

 

[tomp]

Super Thrive is certainly still around, and the company recently purchased Dyna-Gro, so all their products are now sold under the Super Thrive brand.

The Super Thrive stimulant is a concoction of a number of minor nutrients, but the significant stimulant is the synthetic rooting hormone, naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). NAA is a very effective stimulant, as is indole-butyric acid (IBA), which is combined with NAA in the Dyna-Gro product, K-L-N Root Grow. The problem is that in order to make the synthetic materials water soluble, they had to be converted into mineral salts, and those are not particularly chemically stable.

Dave Neal, who founded Dyna Gro, once told me that a brand new batch of K-L-N would be chemically active for about a year, if kept cool and dark. If kept at room temperature, that could drop to a matter of months, and if kept warm and sunny - as is often done when folks store their supplies in a greenhouse - it would be more like a matter of weeks.

I always got fresh K-L-N directly from DG back when I sold the stuff (I kept it refrigerated) and it worked great, but if you think about the product being transported cross-country in a truck, sitting in a distributor’s warehouse for who-knows-how-long, followed my more trucking and storage on the retailer’s shelf before you get it, getting fresh material is a crap shoot. (As an aside, after the discussion I had with Dave, DG started putting expiration dates on the bottles.)

Learning that spurred me into looking at natural stimulants, and I’m extremely glad I did, as that’s what led me to “discover” Kelpak, which is a much better and more stable product.

 

[monocotman]

Thanks guys, as an aside the amethystoglossa has a new growth about a couple of inches high, but there is no sign of new roots. I know bifoliates are very picky about repotting time but the plants have to be bare root to get into the UK and this species is incredibly rare over here.

 

[tomp]

Superthrive a historical note:
Superthrive was founded and produced by Dr. John Thompson who ran the company for 70 years. Turns out Dr John was my wife’s uncle and a truly remarkable man. John passed away a few years ago and Superthrive was soon bought by a large garden products company who has repackaged and expanded the product line. I did not know they also acquired Dyna Gro.

 

[David B]

Good luck with the mendelii, or is it mendelli or maybe even mendellii. I believe it is mendelii. Anyway my experience with it was a learning process, with a semi-alba from Dr. Leslie Ee. The plant was a division, but it took 3 years to establish, never once hinting that it liked it here enough to bloom and as the plant got quite large I was getting a bit to the point of you are outta here. I guess it read my mind and bloomed quite nicely from at least 3 leads. After blooming it was easily divided into 3 plants and those divisions look like they re-established quite well, with no setback. So be patient and it may be with mendelii that the plant needs good vigour and several strong growths to be able to bloom. Cheers. Oh, and I second kelp as a good contributor to cattleya root initiation.

 

[terryros]

Good luck with the mendelii, or is it mendelli or maybe even mendellii. I believe it is mendelii. Anyway my experience with it was a learning process, with a semi-alba from Dr. Leslie Ee. The plant was a division, but it took 3 years to establish, never once hinting that it liked it here enough to bloom and as the plant got quite large I was getting a bit to the point of you are outta here. I guess it read my mind and bloomed quite nicely from at least 3 leads. After blooming it was easily divided into 3 plants and those divisions look like they re-established quite well, with no setback. So be patient and it may be with mendelii that the plant needs good vigour and several strong growths to be able to bloom. Cheers. Oh, and I second kelp as a good contributor to cattleya root initiation.

According to the Baker culture sheets, C. mendelii receives one of the lower amounts of rain throughout the year compared to other unifoliate species. The humidity is also lower in the natural habitat so dew is said to be less. January is the driest month so water and nutrition would be reduced. This is a stimulus for initiating a new growth in a number of Cattleya species. The temperatures are pretty steady all year with highs about 77 F and lows about 66 F. I am being very careful to not grow my mendelii wet; December and January will have infrequent watering, very low concentration of fertilizer, and very light misting. I have bloomed it once.

 

[southernbelle]

mind and bloomed quite nicely from at least 3 leads

Super Thrive is certainly still around, and the company recently purchased Dyna-Gro, so all their products are now sold under the Super Thrive brand.

The Super Thrive stimulant is a concoction of a number of minor nutrients, but the significant stimulant is the synthetic rooting hormone, naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). NAA is a very effective stimulant, as is indole-butyric acid (IBA), which is combined with NAA in the Dyna-Gro product, K-L-N Root Grow. The problem is that in order to make the synthetic materials water soluble, they had to be converted into mineral salts, and those are not particularly chemically stable.

Dave Neal, who founded Dyna Gro, once told me that a brand new batch of K-L-N would be chemically active for about a year, if kept cool and dark. If kept at room temperature, that could drop to a matter of months, and if kept warm and sunny - as is often done when folks store their supplies in a greenhouse - it would be more like a matter of weeks.

I always got fresh K-L-N directly from DG back when I sold the stuff (I kept it refrigerated) and it worked great, but if you think about the product being transported cross-country in a truck, sitting in a distributor’s warehouse for who-knows-how-long, followed my more trucking and storage on the retailer’s shelf before you get it, getting fresh material is a crap shoot. (As an aside, after the discussion I had with Dave, DG started putting expiration dates on the bottles.)

Learning that spurred me into looking at natural stimulants, and I’m extremely glad I did, as that’s what led me to “discover” Kelpak, which is a much better and more stable product.

Ray, I soak every plant I am going to repot in KelpPak solution for 30 minutes before removing from pot. This softens the roots (especially on cattleyas) and facilitates release from the pot and old mix. I then run them on the dry side for about a month. If timed with new growth, they establish well.

 

[monocotman]

An update today. I’m very pleased to report that all seven plants now have new roots initiated, even the tricky bifoliate species, amethystoglossa. All plants look like they’ll establish and one of the lueddemanniana plants even has a new growth. So maybe the sugar water helped? I didn’t have a control group so it’s not clear It did.

 

[My Green Pets]

Looks like a win to me! It's going to be great following their progress as you report.

 

[Ozpaph]

good growing

 

[alex.sorensen51]

when a cattleya labiata species produces a bifoliate shoot,does that indicate a flower bud is forming? I have patiently waited 30 years for my rescue from the RBG Hamilton ,to grow, and it has decided to do so

 

[monocotman]

Alex,
I am not sure about that. It’s usually means that the growth will be a good size