I have a Laelio Cat (Emperor Wade) which has not flowered yet. About 1 month ago it started 3 new growths. I was spraying daily since I did not want the low humidity dry ou the growth. Suddenly 1 of the growths turned brown and then black. The other 2 seem to have stopped their growth although have not turned black. Was it the watering? Can anybody please help?
Are the growths flower stalks or roots? Roots do turn brown as they age. Does this discoloration affect any other part of the plant? Is it dry or squishy? Are the dark areas spotty or complete? Have you checked for insect pests? In what medium, and in what light level/temperature conditions, is it growing? How long have you had the plant? A photo would be most helpful.
Are the growths flower stalks or roots? A: Flower stalks Roots do turn brown as they age. A: They are not roots Does this discoloration affect any other part of the plant? A: No Is it dry or squishy? A: Dry Are the dark areas spotty or complete? A: Complete Have you checked for insect pests? A: No insects In what medium, and in what light level/temperature conditions, is it growing? A: Fir bark and sphagum moss, south screened exposure, approx 1800 fc. How long have you had the plant? A: 1.5 y. Plz see photos. In the middle of the leaves, you see 2 tiny flower stalk growths. Adjacent to these you see a dried growth which is approx.1/8-1/4" tall.
Well, your plant looks healthy to me. Think that the fizzled new growth is simply that: for some reason, it just didn't make it. Happens sometimes (with flowers, too). As you note, seems to be no other condition that is causing this, so I'd say that it is an isolated incident. Could be that a flower will arise from one of the new sprouts!
I realize the medium is not the correct one; its mostly sphagum. Its because of this that I did not want to water too much and maybe it got too dry. So, come spring Ill put it in a mostly bark medium. Thanks for your help.
Looks to me like you may have overwatered it. I know of no reason that a minicatt grown as a houseplant for 1.5 yrs should have a green algal top to the medium. These need drier roots. With the frequent runoff from spraying every day, plus your regular watering, plus an inappropriate too-soggy growing mix, the roots rot down in the pot. As more roots rot the plant realizes 'wait a minute, I can't support all this top growth', and decides to cut back some (or is unable to maintain some) of the topgrowth. The other problem is the frequent spraying is having the opposite effect that you want. It raises the humidity for only a very short time for the upper part of the plant. This causes the stomata on the leaf surface to open wide to bask in that short-lived humidity. The problem comes in that the stomata close slowly; slower than the fleeting humidity dissapears; leaving the "naked" plant unable to preserve its own internal humidity. So frequent spraying can actually cause housplants to loose net moiture, instead of gain. These hybrids do fine in average lower in-home humidity, as long as you're good at watering them right as they are drying out. So only wash the leaves once a week, or whenever you water, to wash off the dust, sap, & bugs; but don't spray otherwise. I agree it looks overdue for a repot. Do it quick before those growths get much bigger.
Tom Thanks for the advise, it makes sense. Although I was spraying the surface of the potting medium (thus the algae) I was not being careful enough and I would also spray the new growth (I thought it would actually help!). You are right, the medium is 100% sphagum moss. When I was in Costa Rica 2 years ago and I visited the Botanical University (huge greenhouse w/ 100's of orchids-if you ever visit I highly recommend) , they were planting their orchids in 100% moss, but come to think, they might not have had any cattleyas. After 3 dead cattleyas, I was planning to repot them in bark come this spring. Im constantly spraying all my orchids and did not realize that I was hurting them I guess Im going to have to give them some "tough love" and stop spraying the rascals! Anyways, thanks again for taking the time to respond to my post.
