Oncidium flowering mechanism

[mascia]

Hi everyone,
With cattleyas what I have noticed so far is that if a new growth starts from a mature pseudobulb which has not flowered, chances are this pseudobulb will not flower ever (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Is this true for oncidiums as well? I'm asking because I have a couple Oncidium flexuosum that, after their last flowering, have created 3 to 5 new bulbs each, but none of these bulbs created spikes.

It is a native species here that blooms in early spring. Once spring comes will it only bloom from the latest bulb or from all the bulbs it created during the past year?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I don't personally know whether it is easy to generalize growth habits for the entire genus Oncidium due to the large number of species in the genus.

But I can say that I have seen a few of the Oncidium I've grown create flower spikes from mature pseudobulbs that have stopped growing and during the period of time when the leaves that surround the pseudobulbs are still alive, (if any of this makes any sense).

In other words...

Provided that the orchid is growing under an adequate amount of light, is generally healthy and has a fair amount of healthy roots, and if the pseudobulb is mature, is of a large enough size, and has stopped growing, but there are still leaves surrounding the base of the pseudobulb, it is likely that there will be a spike emerging from the base of the pseudobulb.

Other than this, I am not aware of any conditions that would be a factor in the production of flowers. It doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't any other ones. I'm just saying that, as far as I currently understand, there are no other criteria involved.

Without seeing photos of your Oncidium flexuosum, I don't really know what could possibly be the issue, (if there is one at all).

[Ray]

Originally Posted by mascia

Hi everyone,
With cattleyas what I have noticed so far is that if a new growth starts from a mature pseudobulb which has not flowered, chances are this pseudobulb will not flower ever (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Generally, that is not a true statement, but there are two potential reasons for that to happen:

1) The growths are simply not mature enough to bloom. With time, they will get bigger and bigger, and then do so regularly with each growth.

2) If they are mature and not blooming, when older growths had done so, then they are not getting the proper culture - something is amiss that is not allowing them to grow and develop sufficiently.

[mascia]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

I don't personally know whether it is easy to generalize growth habits for the entire genus Oncidium due to the large number of species in the genus.

But I can say that I have seen a few of the Oncidium I've grown create flower spikes from mature pseudobulbs that have stopped growing and during the period of time when the leaves that surround the pseudobulbs are still alive, (if any of this makes any sense).

In other words...

Provided that the orchid is growing under an adequate amount of light, is generally healthy and has a fair amount of healthy roots, and if the pseudobulb is mature, is of a large enough size, and has stopped growing, but there are still leaves surrounding the base of the pseudobulb, it is likely that there will be a spike emerging from the base of the pseudobulb.

Other than this, I am not aware of any conditions that would be a factor in the production of flowers. It doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't any other ones. I'm just saying that, as far as I currently understand, there are no other criteria involved.

Without seeing photos of your Oncidium flexuosum, I don't really know what could possibly be the issue, (if there is one at all).

Hi, thanks for your reply, but I don't think I made myself very clear. English is not my first language, so pardon me if it somehow is not making sense.

I have a few sharry baby oncidiums, and if it is healthy, once a new bulb reaches maturity it will send a spike. This means I can get spikes any time of the year.

The Oncidium flexuosum, on the other hand, always spikes in august/september and flowers in october (here). The point is, it doesn't take 9 months for a new bulb to develop. So during the year it is creating several new bulbs that reach maturity and start new bulbs, but do not flower.

What I wanted to know is once blooming season is here, will it only bloom from the latest bulb or all the bulbs created during the year would be capable of creating spikes?

I will be able to check this out for myself later this year, but I was just curious.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Well...

With regards to Onc flexuosum, again, I've never grown this particular species, but what I have observed of other Oncidiums is this.

As far as I know, some of the Oncidiums I've grown do not necessarily grow all year round. Some of them actually take a break and stop growing during the winter, or if they are still growing it is drastically slowed down and reduced. When spring comes, they start growing at a rapid speed again. Most people do not really pay attention to this, and, therefore, do not really notice this behavior. Watch your plants and you will notice this pause or slowing down in growing during the winter on some of your Oncs.

If I get the opportunity to, I will one day post growing behaviors of a few Oncidiums or Oncidium relatives in my group of plants to document what happens to these guys during the course of the year.

Back to talking about flowering...

If it is an Oncidium that only blooms once a year. Not every mature pseudobulb will produce a flower spike, but it definitely has the potential to, especially if it is large enough or has enough energy stored up. It can be kind of random. Some pseudobulbs will produce only a flower spike. Some pseudobulbs will only produce new shoots. Other pseudobulbs will produce both new shoots and new flower spikes. As far as I know, it is difficult to predict which ones will do what.

Again, I can try to document this if time permits later on.

For now, I do have an Oncidium relative that is spiking. It does not conform 100% to what I have said in my previous post, but it is behaving pretty close to what I have described. It is a Gomesa kautskyi. The photo on the left is the entire plant. The photo on the right is the flower spike. Notice the spike is coming out from the base of the mature pseudobulb. This pseudobulb has stopped growing and it is large enough to produce a flower spike. In the photo of the entire plant, the flower spike is coming out of the pseudobulb with the bent leaf on the left side of the plant below the one with the kinked leaf.