"Kenni Judd" wrote in message m...
I hate to rain on your parade, but the "stress" is most likely responsible
for the generous new growth. Start pampering it, and things may go
downhill!


Thanks Kenni,

Rain is good! At least as long as it doesn't rain all day every day.
Just think how dry we'd be if it didn't rain. ;-) And it doesn't
matter much to me if there is rain on a parade since there are lots of
prettily coloured umbrellas, and since I ain't made out of sugar or
spice or anything nice, I don't have to worry about dissolving. ;-)
But if it gets hot, there'll be just a puddle of grease where i used
to be. ;-)

I am guessing you're right about the stress being a stimulus to
generous growth, at least in part. I noticed that the stress the
plants are under has ameliorated significantly over the past week or
so. Temperatures outside have moderated singificantly (about half the
snow we had as of a couple weeks ago is gone and we can actually see
the pavement on the driveway and road for the first time in many
months), and so the air inside is much more humid. The pseudobulbs I
saw were no more than a week or two old, so I am guessing that it is
the change in the environment for the better that, combined with the
stress, stimulated the growth.

But I think that if the plants were kept continually stressed, they
would probably die, unless the stress was either of a very short
duration or very mild. Another grower, the one who sold me several of
my happiest catts, told me that a number of his friends have given him
plants that were dying under their growing conditions and yet when
placed in his greenhouse, they thrived because he maintained the
humidity near 100%. He had nearly pefect conditions in his greenhouse
for orchids. I suspect, based on his observations, that what some
people call pampering is good enough that the plants aren't killed,
but not good enough for them to thrive. He said he observed that
invariably the plants brought to him in dire straits had been subject
to air that was not nearly humid enough.

Cheers,

Ted