Using rooting hormone to rescue rootless orchid

Rlc (Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' X Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1')

This is my sickest orchid that is still alive after the long drought of neglect.  The orchid is in a sad little state, compared to my last post about it, almost 4 years ago. 

I've found that severe underwatering is just as capable of killing off orchid roots as overwatering.  A dehydrated orchid will put out new growths, but then lose them before they have a chance to fully mature.  In the picture above, you can see two nubs of pseudobulbs, which lack a leaf at the tip.  The leaves had rotted off when I neglected to water the orchid during a critical period of growth.

Two new growths at base of cattleya orchid

Looking closer at the base of the orchid, I can spot what looks like two new growth starts.  They look a little like purple onions.  I am hoping, that with more diligent care, I can nurse these two growths into maturity.

Normally, it seems that in a struggling orchid, new growths must develop first, and then they can put out a set of new roots.  Old pseudobulbs can provide water storage and nutrients to support the orchid, but do not generally produce active growth.  I am curious whether I could trigger some more growth activity.  I purchased a small amount of rooting hormone, to test out whether it can help spur better recovery for the orchid.

Orchid covered in rooting powder

The instructions on the rooting powder indicated to dip the base of the plant directly into the powder, and then to pot.  I padded the rooting powder along the base of the plant (though mostly trying to avoid the new growths themselves).  Afterwards, I returned the orchid to the smallest size plastic pot that I own.

Now, the onus is on me to remember to water the orchid every 3 days, so that it never experiences extended periods of dryness.  I'll check back in a few weeks to see whether the rooting hormone had any effect.  In the meantime, with two new growth starts, diligence in watering should be all that I really need to assure survival.

Second growth point on Rlc. (Port Royal Sound x Chia Lin) ?

Rlc. (Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' X Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1')

     At the beginning of this month I posted about a new growth starting on my Rlc hybrid.  Now there seems to be a second growth, starting next to the oldest pseudobulb.  This growth is much smaller, and already opening into small leaves.  Is this the start of a second growth point?

Newest growth

Older growth from Dec 4

What's going on here?

Rlc (Port Royal Sound x Chia Lin) matures one pseudobulb, starts growing another

Rlc (Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' x Chia Lin 'Shinsu') 

     This rhyncholaeliocattleya hybrid is just about done growing a new pseudobulb (I expect the leaf to flatten out some more over the next few months).  The new leaf is 7" long, making it two inches longer than the last leaf, albeit somewhat narrower. The new pseudobulb is about the same size as the older ones.

New growth starting on Rhyncholaeliocattleya 

     Now there's a new pseudobulb starting at the base of the old one.  It's actually been visible for over a month now, and is about 1/2" long.  I'm not sure when this seedling will reach blooming size, but until then, it seems to be growing well.

Moved Rlc. Port Royal Sound x Chia Lin to lower light

Rlc. (Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' x Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1')

     The new growth on my Rlc. cross was turning a deep bruised purple, so I moved the cattleya to a lower shelf where it gets less light.  This picture was taken a couple days after I moved it, and the pigmentation on the leaf has receded somewhat.  I'll keep the cattleya on the bottom shelf from now on, with my phals.  This way, I'm less likely to lose new growths to sunburn.  The young orchid is still quite a few years away from blooming size, so I don't have to worry about getting sufficient light exposure to initiate flowers.  

On an unrelated note: I am switching to using unfiltered tap water.  Up til now, I've been using a Pur water pitchter to filter the water for my orchids.  However, it takes a frustratingly long time to filter enough water, and those pitcher filters can get expensive.  Since Manhattan water is supposed to be decently good, I'll see how my plants fare on tap water.  My watering method involves soaking each pot/mount for 15-20 minutes, so I don't expect mineral buildup to cause me problems.

New Orchid: Rlc. (Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' x Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1' AM/JOGA

Rlc. (Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' x Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1' AM/JOGA)

     My giant orchid order from Hausermann arrived yesterday.  Since there are so many orchids (6), instead of one giant post, I will introduce each individually.

     So, without further ado, here is my new cattleya hybrid: a seed grown cross.  The tag says "Blc." for "brassolaeliocattleya" but a search on the Internet Orchid Register indicates that both parents were reassigned to the genus "rhyncholaeliocattleya" sometime around 2009.  Both these genus names are obscenely long, so I will refer to the orchid either as a 'cattleya' in general, or as 'Rlc'.

     The orchid has 4 single-leaved pseudobulbs.  The longest leaf is 5.5" and there is one new growth.  According to the vendor, it is 3 years away from blooming size.

Rlc. Chia Lin 'Shinsu #1' (source: Owensorchids.com)

Rlc. Port Royal Sound 'Big Red' (click for larger photo original link)

     The picture above are hits on google image search for the parent names. Both seem to make large showy red flowers.  I expect and hope that my resulting hybrid will come out looking similarly.   

Bare root Rlc. Port Royal Sound x Chia Lin

     Since the orchid looked like its roots were trying to crawl out of the pot, I immediately went to re-pot.  I soaked the orchid for a while in water+superthrive to loosen everything up.  Then I pried the whole thing out of its 2.5" pot.  The roots inside were better than I had expected, actually.  Compare my Tolumnia Genting Orange, which arrived similarly with tons of roots outside the pot: the roots from inside the pot were mostly dead.

     I trimmed back a few of the dead and broken roots, and repotted into a 4" clear plastic pot with medium orchid bark.