Catts back from the dead!!!

[ang709]

BTW, have someone heard or experimented putting B vitamin (10 drops/liter of water) driving to stimulate root growing.

I have heard of that. I haven't tried pure vitamin B, but sometimes I use a product called Superthrive that has Vitamin B in it.

[Lambert]

Congrats Margo, I have also become pretty good at reviving rootless Catts and Laelias after reading John's article.
Very gratifying to see those tough little guys pulling through.

[Diamond]

Thanks Lizgeo and Angie.

I bought some vitamin B (liquid for dilute, as I said), but am a bit afraid of using it.

I now I can find here DynaGro KLN, but not superthrive. I'll try

[Halloamey]

Here are my catts back from the dead. This one is Otaara Hua Yuan Bay. Due to some problem with excess watering, overpotting and the wrong medium, this beauty was dying, it had lost all its roots and was drying fast.

This picture is from 14 th June 2008



On 20 th June it went into water culture (50% distilled and 50% tap water). Here is the picture of the plant on 1 st July. Notice that the existing pseudobulbs are already looking healthier and plumper.



And this is the picture from 7th August 2008. The plant has sent out three new leads and succulent new roots.



In November it was potted up again, it hasnt flowered yet, but is on a road to full recovery.

[Halloamey]

The next one here is Cattleya warneri var. coerulea. I know I have a weak spot for coeruleas, so I decided to buy this one on an online auction, even though it looked a bit shriveled. When it came to me, it was much worse than the picture (it seemed to me that the plant had not been watered for like a month or so). To make matter worse, the plant was small and was in active growth, and the new leads were the worst hit.



It was time for water culture, in just 3 days the plant sucked in a lot of water, and in just two weeks I can see new root growth and lead formation.

[Cookiemonster]

awesome saves!!! how often are you changing the water?!
I think I might have to do this with a few plants

[Halloamey]

I am changing water every two weeks, for the first weeks. Once the roots start emerging, I add some fertilizer to the water (100 ppm of NPK each). But this encourages algae, so then I change the water every week.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

I really like seeing the process. Thanks for the photos.

Cheers,
BD

[Diamond]

Thanks again amey, i'm learning a lot with your "experiences". I'll try it, too.

[EMos]

Thanks Amhey for sharing this experiment, I've never tried water culture with orchids before, so now I know what to do in extreme situations.