What is the problem, light? Day length? Transport?

[Blueszz]

I need a fix, any help welcome

I have a problem with some orchids in bud. I try to explain what is going on. (Sorry long!)

Two weeks ago I bought several new orchids in bloom/bud
- Oncidium, looks a lot like Sweet Sugar, only buds
- Dendrobium Phalaenopsis, only buds
- Phalaenopsis, in bud and in bloom

When I bought them I thought: Damn, it's cold in this shop, but for the price offered I decided to give three orchids a for ever home.
The plants arrived the day before, so a fresh load, but I don't know were they kept them over night. Maybe even colder?

The Oncidium (Sweet Sugar look a like) opened it's buds pretty fast. It is in full bloom now. The Dendrobium is still in bud, buds try to get open but it goes to slow in my opinion. I takes more than a week for a bud to open and still it isn't fully open. It keeps the heart of the flower still hidden for me. No wilting from buds... not yet.
The Phalaenopsis opened one new bud but 2 other blooms wilted.

Roots/leaves of these plants are in excellent shape
Growing near south window, humidity between 40 - 75%, temp during night 62F, during day 70F.
Plants are in my living room, close to a south faced window together with some other orchids; a Dendrobium Phalaneopsis with active new root growth, a healthy looking Odontocidum Wildcat (Carmela) with almost finished blooming. Other Phalaenopsis' have active root and/or leaf growth and even growing a new flower stalk.
Distance from window 1-2 ft. (Oncidium and Dendrobium types closest to the window).
On an other table are a Phalaenopsis and Slipper (Maudiae type) in bloom. These get less light than the plants mentioned before as they are farther away from the window. These are flowering great! No problems with them.

My diagnosis?
- Lack of light for the blooming Phal. in front of the south faced window (2 ft away from the window) causes bud blast. (Questions to self: Why are the other Phal.'s still in active growth while they have same growing conditions and why has an other Phal in bud/bloom no problems with the same amount of light or even less light?)
- Lack of light for the Dendrobium Phalaenopsis (1 ft. away from south faced window) is a reason that it can't open it's buds. But why was the Oncidium (Sweet Sugar?) able to develop it's bud and open these, while under the same growing conditions?
- Plants are shocked during transport.

It might be a combination of this plus we have short days this time of the year (9 hours of day light) and during the last two weeks it was very cloudy! This time of the year I water very carefully! As said before, all the roots look still great! Also the leaves look ok, not wilted or something. No signs of pests.

So what I did. I moved the plants in trouble closer to the window and made sure the total height of the window lets light in. If not shocked during transport or in the shop, this has to be enough for the Phalaenopsis as last winter I needed to do the same and faced when I faced the same problems. Still doesn't make sense to me why an other Phal. blooms beautifully with less light.


I think I need artificial light to make the days longer and add some ft. candles :-) .

I would appreciate any suggestions how to deal with the problem I'm faced with. Ideal would be an orchidarium heh :-) but no, not for me at this time. I prefer my orchids 'free range' :-)
The easiest fix to ad some extra light would be fluorescent light. I tried to find T5 but I have no idea were to get it here. Is ordinary fluorescent light, 6500 K also beneficial for the plants? I know there are better options but I want a quick 'fix'. I can search for better lights later on. Or do you think, as me, that shock during transport is the biggest problem?

Thanks for reading this long - long post :-)

Nicole

[shakkai]

Hi Nicole, There could be a lot of things going on here, but the most likely in my mind is just the adjustment to a new home (or several - from greenhouse, to truck, to warehouse, to truck, to shop, at least - in a short space of time. Now they need time to adjust to your home. If the other orchids that you have are doing fine, then these ones should settle into their respective places just fine. Give them some time to adjust - like a couple of months. Bud blast on Phals is not uncommon when they experience changes in growing condition.

[Blueszz]

Hello Shakkai,
as you could read I'm puzzled :-) The other (older) orchids do fine so I maybe I shouldn't blame myself
Let's see what others have to say, but you could be right. This is what went thru my mind too. Getting them to rebloom next season wouldn't be too much of a problem for me and getting them to rebloom is even better than buying them in bloom, isn't it
The growing conditions could be better but this is what I have to deal with during winter, unless I ad extra light.
Let's see what this winter brings and if more problems show up I know what to do next fall.

[dounoharm]

i think you have a case of transport shock nicole. the plants just get a little confused with all the changes in light temp and orientation....give em time and the next bloom should be normal. sounds like you are trying real hard to give em a good home...dou

[Blueszz]

Thanks dounoharm
I decided to take care of them as I do with the others. I really can't find things I did wrong.

Same light, same watering regime as the others from the same species. The Den. seems to loose buds too... but I have hope for the buds that are still tiny. If not... I look foward to next flowering season.

The plants were cheap and when I got home I even noticed some fungus on the medium form the Den. (superficial). I think it was too long kept in a plastic wrapper. Took care of that problem and seems to be OK now.

Wait and see and maybe they still have some nice surprices for me. If they don't bloom for me this year, I'll appreciate their blooms even more the next season

[Blueszz]

I have an update for you on the plants that have some problems. A new blossem on the Phalaenopsis opened and it opened better than the ones allready were open when I bought the plants.
A neighbor asked me what was wrong with her new Phal, as she new I grow orchids. It dropped it's buds and flowers. I asked where she bought it - the same shop as I bought mine.
Yesteray my parents visited me, Mom looked at my orchids while I said: these new ones don't do very well and guess... she had also a plant from the same load!
She was happy to hear I faced the same problem with these plants and that she probably didn't do anything wrong. I'm going to contact the shop about the poor quality plants they sold. I keep mine, no doubt about that - but they have to know.

[kiki-do]

Hi Bluezz! I'm very glad you found out what was happening to your plants.
Just a thought. Whenever I buy new orchids, I keep them away from my others for about 3 weeks to a month just to be sure they aren't problematic and could cause harm to my others. You just never know the history of the newbie and it's better to be cautious.

[Blueszz]

Kiki-do, you are right.
Sadly enough, I don't have an extra room where they get enough light or heat this time of the year. I realy should work on that for the future. Visual inspection is not always enough. I've been lucky until now ;-)
Thanks for your advise, I should keep that in mind in the future now my collection is growing (and growing).