Hi all, as promised here are the photos of the Cattlianthe Tristan Fitch (guatamalensis x skinnerii) that I recently bought and put into SH. The first picture shows the plant as I bought it, the plant was a division from a recently divided plant, it came to me bare root as shown in the picture, you can see that it hardly has any healthy roots, it had a developing bud which would have become the new growth, but the nursery did not pack and send it well, so that bud got damaged so no new growth from that bud as you can see in photo 2. I got the plant on the 12th of July 2012.

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As you can see here the bud tip was damaged so it did not produce any new growth, but it immediately put out new roots, which it usually would have put out after the completion of the growth of a new pseudobulb.

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Immediately I put it in SH and you can see the results in barely 2 months. There is already a new lead developing from another dormant bud.

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I do not grow in a conventional SH pot with no drainage holes at the bottom but on the sides to have a reservoir, but I place this regular orchid pot in a bigger container which is the reservoir, now the roots are growing out of the bottom of the orchid pot into the reservoir. I like it better this way, because it gives me control to drain the reservoir, clean it and also adjust the level of the reservoir.

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When the orchid has almost no roots, I keep the reservoir level high so that more moisture reaches the pseudobulbs, as soon as I see new roots striking, I reduce the level of the reservoir, so the grow deeper into the pot searching for the moisture.

Giessen water has ~30 ppm Calcium, 10-15 ppm Magnesium, ~120 ppm HCO3- and 18 ppm Nitrate, fortunately it is low in Sodium 5ppm and Potassium 1-3 ppm. So it is moderately hard, so I mix 20% normal water with 80 % deionized RO water (This is a benefit of working in a science lab at a uni. unlimited free supply of RO water and this is the water all my plants get. I spray everyday with the plain RO water. All my plants are on a window sill with western exposure that does not go beyond 1000 Fc and yet all my plants including Paphiopedilums to Paravandrum are growing quite happily. Twice a week I fertilize with a balanced fertilizer that is 50 ppm each of NPK and trace elements. Thats about it. My main tips would be,
1) Check your water, usually the city water board has a website where they have water analysis reports for your city. Depending on that you can decide the use of RO water.
2) The level of reservoir is very important, very tall pots will prevent good capillary action leaving very dry top layer, or very wet tops in shallow pots.
3) Most importantly, the time to put your orchids into SH is critical. The best phase would be the time the orchid has finished its new growth and you see tiny green root nubs just peeking out of the newest growth. For monopodials it does not matter, when you put them into SH, just make sure, they are not going into rest.