Why would a normally unifoliate cattleya produce a bifoliate growth?

[ALToronto]

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]

It is in species or hybrids?

 

[ALToronto]

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]

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]

Does your hybrids have bifoliates in the ancestry?

 

[cattmad]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.