"Sacha" wrote

"Bob Hobden"

"Sacha" wrote

"Bob Hobden" said:

"Sacha" wrote
This thread prompted me to read up on Phalaenopsis again and I am
doing everything (almost) wrong. They need a period of cool
surroundings and mine are in the kitchen, on a window sill and beside
the Aga! I'll remove them to somewhere a lot cooler, feed them and
re-pot them and hope all that prompts them into flowering.


Yes, if you keep them too warm they will not flower. Again they need a
drop in temperature to initiated flower spikes but usually they get a
decent drop at night even in a heated room but not with an Aga nearby.
The growers that win the International Orchid competitions have
Phalaenopsis with, say, 50+ flowers on them ( I think I once saw one
with 78 flowers)and they get that by constantly moving them from warm
to cool and back. The cool bit prompts flower spike extension so they
have huge long spikes. The real secret is how they keep all the flowers
on the plant and all looking superb.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a photo on the net of an
award winning one for you.

I must take a lok at the Eric Young Foundation web site.


Thanks Bob. I will move mine tomorrow to the landing window or a sill in
the sitting room. If I choose the sitting room, it's heated when our
weather turns cold and the sill I'm thinking of faces west, the two
others face south. If we shut the curtains on cold nights it will be
very cold indeed on those sills, so should I bring the orchids room-side
of the curtains overnight? Even as I write this I'm starting to think
that one of the Tea Room window sills is their best bet. It faces
north, isn't heated once the Tea Room shuts, other than above seriously
cold and has a good bit of light. The Aga is definitely a bad mistake
for them down to my sheer ignorance. I had this mad idea they'd
appreciate the warmth!

We have ours on a South facing windowsill in a spare bedroom with net
curtains at the window between the plants and the double glazed glass and
they stay there all year only moving to the kitchen, again S. facing,
when in good bloom. The bedroom heats up well during the day, especially
if the sun shines, but cools at night and more so in the winter. Their
leaves have not gone reddish so they are not getting too much light in
either location despite the aspect.
To answer your question, I would not leave them between thick curtains
and the glass on cold nights, they need a drop in temperature but that
just might be too much. When I say a drop in temperature I mean just
that, not a night drop like some, just a change, a reduction, in overall
temperature.

Thanks, Bob. I'm thinking now that it might even be best to take the
non-flowering plants out into one of the greenhouses. Unless it goes to
frost level, or just above, they're not heated at night, so daytime and
nightime temps are absolutely natural. Or do you think the difference
between a hot sunny autumn day and a cold autumn night would be too great?
While the window sill they're on faces west, it's in the corner of the
house/tea-room angle so it doesn't get westering sun for very long at this
time of year but of course the Aga heat is too much. The leaves are all
green bar one which looks as if it's got a great scar on it. I'm
suspecting someone of watering it in my absence and splashing the leaf,
perhaps.


I've never found they did well in a normal greenhouse. Stick to a
windowsill.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK