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#1
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How much night time temp difference do you need?
I have 3 phals, 7 cats, 2 dend and various other species (19 in all) in
an enclosed shelving unit with a watering system. This solved my humidity problem, but I don't know if all my orchids are enjoying their new enviroment. all my phals are in spike, one of my cats (bl. golden Glory) just bloomed, but only lasted 3 weeks. One of my brassavola is in bloom. I have a cheep room heater in the bottom of the stack to keep the temp above 60F. Also, I was away for 3 weeks and my father-in-law looked after my orchids, they are in s/h and are primarly watered by misters, they all are withered now, how long will it take for them to flesh back out (oh I installed a secondary drip system after I came home, was alittle ****ed, guess I should be happy that they are still alive) Jack |
#2
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How much night time temp difference do you need?
Jack,
For Phals to spike one needs about 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit day-night difference for about a week or two, just until they spike. But once the Phals are in spike the day-night temp difference no longer matters. Do you have a fan in the enclosed shelving unit? High humidity + no moving air = environment for fungus. I am experiencing much more mold or white fungus (not sure what it is) on the media of some of my orchids when the humidity is high if I forget to keep the ceiling fan running in the room where they are kept. Catts and dends need more light than phals. Are they arranged in your case with that in mind? A cattleya lasting 3 weeks may just be normal for this individual plant. Catts' flowers don't last nearly as long as Phal flowers. Maybe it will stay in bloom longer the next time it flowers though -- I find with one of my catts that it seems to alternate between a good flowering season and a mediocre one (two seasons in one year) so far, I don't know how typical this is, though. How old/young is your blc? If it is a small plant, close to seedling size, its flowering season is likely to get longer in the future as it matures. Also how long have you had this Blc? If you got it in spike and this is the blooming that just happened and lasted 3 weeks, it may be that it still needs to acclimate to your environment which is bound to be different from the greenhouse where it probably used to live. Especially if you bought it at an orchid show, I think shows tend to stress out orchids quite a lot (since it's not an ideal environment and there is a lot of environment changes that are not gradual), so they need to recover from that, and as a result a shorter blooming season is not unusual at that point. Hmm, what do you mean by withered? how much? Can you post a picture to alt.binaries.pictures.orchids if you have access to it (or post a picture to a Web site, and send us a link to it here)? I assume that the problem is that your father-in-law did not water them at all? 3 weeks without watering one time only should not be a big deal for the Phals (unless they are seedlings). Too much watering is generally worse than not enough water. I once forgot to water a Phal for a whole month, and it was fine -- its leaves were just wilted, but it perked up soon after that with no lasting effects. In general a onetime deviation from usual watering will likely be fine, since in nature they have to be able to survive an unusually dry season. It's the overall pattern of waterings that makes more of a difference. Best, Joanna "Jack" wrote in message ups.com... I have 3 phals, 7 cats, 2 dend and various other species (19 in all) in an enclosed shelving unit with a watering system. This solved my humidity problem, but I don't know if all my orchids are enjoying their new enviroment. all my phals are in spike, one of my cats (bl. golden Glory) just bloomed, but only lasted 3 weeks. One of my brassavola is in bloom. I have a cheep room heater in the bottom of the stack to keep the temp above 60F. Also, I was away for 3 weeks and my father-in-law looked after my orchids, they are in s/h and are primarly watered by misters, they all are withered now, how long will it take for them to flesh back out (oh I installed a secondary drip system after I came home, was alittle ****ed, guess I should be happy that they are still alive) Jack |
#3
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Catt Blooms and Show Stress
Joanna makes several good points. 3 weeks is on the "low end" for modern
Catt hybrids, but not totally outside the norm. She's also correct that a bigger, more mature plant will give better performance than a youngster or small division. She's also right about shows being stressful on the plants, but vastly understates the case on that one! Before the orchids get to the "not-ideal" environment, they have to travel; and once they get there, they get way too much handling, mostly by folks who have no idea HOW to handle an orchid ... Kenni A cattleya lasting 3 weeks may just be normal for this individual plant. Catts' flowers don't last nearly as long as Phal flowers. Maybe it will stay in bloom longer the next time it flowers though -- I find with one of my catts that it seems to alternate between a good flowering season and a mediocre one (two seasons in one year) so far, I don't know how typical this is, though. How old/young is your blc? If it is a small plant, close to seedling size, its flowering season is likely to get longer in the future as it matures. Also how long have you had this Blc? If you got it in spike and this is the blooming that just happened and lasted 3 weeks, it may be that it still needs to acclimate to your environment which is bound to be different from the greenhouse where it probably used to live. Especially if you bought it at an orchid show, I think shows tend to stress out orchids quite a lot (since it's not an ideal environment and there is a lot of environment changes that are not gradual), so they need to recover from that, and as a result a shorter blooming season is not unusual at that point. |
#4
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Catt Blooms and Show Stress
Your right about the phals, I lost an emerging second spike from one of
my larger plants, other wise fine. My catts were and agncm.s were the ones that were withered, I have them in s/h pots that keep water for 4 - 10 days depending on humidity and plant, my father-in-law says that he ran the misters once a day - just not for the 2-5 minutes required, oh well they survived The lack of water could have been a contributing factor for the short bloom on the Blc. the plant is young, and in a growth cycle (2 new psudobulbs) I guess that I get to look forward to the next bloom. I was really concerned about my minis, but after just a day I can see them already fleshing out. thanks Jack Ps. I have yet to get to a show ( I live in Anchorage AK, the weather isn't very good for one now) BUT all my mail order have arrived in good condition (orchids.com and Andysorchids.com) |
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