Mariposa won't flower

[Kpeters]

Thank you, First time poster,
I purchased a Psychopsis Mariposa about 3 years ago. It had 3 leaves when I bought it, and it's just getting it's 10th. And I haven't got a single flower!
I don't remember losing any leaves during that time. So it must be a tough plant.
I've tried dosing it with 6.5k fluorescent, or decent natural light, lower light cooler periods, and still no flowers. But 8-10 inch dark green leaves.
It's in a 9"w by 7"d orchid pot with a fine bark. I give it the recommended amount of Shultse's orchid fertilizer. It's fat and happy.
I left it close to a very cold window for the last two months. I thought this might help push it to flower, but it just grew another leaf.
Today it's back under the 6.5k, to stay. Would a 10k or 5k be better? Or just more light?
There's at least 6 "bulbs"(feel free to correct my terminology) that haven't flowered yet. And I'm dieing to see them.
Can you help?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Psychopsis in general can be grown in fairly bright light.

It can handle light that Cattleyas like. Bright indirect.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

First of all, Kelvin is the SI unit for the temperature of plasma.

The Kelvin rating of a light bulb gives you an idea of the predominant wavelength of light in the visual color spectrum (i.e. red, green, blue, yellow, etc.) that the bulb will produce.

The higher the K rating, the more blue light is produced.

More blue is the better choice for using in a situation like a deep water coral reef tank for example. Why? Because blue penetrates dense salt water the deepest. Light in the red, yellow, and orange wavelengths get filtered out very quickly in shallow depths in something as dense as saltwater.

Lights that produce a higher amount of blue light have Kelvin ratings between 7,200 K to 20,000 K.

To imitate daylight, people like a K rating that's closer to 5,500 K to 6,500 K. These are the Kelvin ratings you should shoot for.

Kelvin ratings for the bulbs are not precise. They're only close enough. Kelvin temperatures will drop off with time.

With that said, Kelvin ratings are not the only factor you should be looking at.

There's also the light's intensity.

A general rule of thumb is...

The higher the wattage, the higher the intensity.

Light intensity is also different with the type of light bulbs you're using.

The bulb that produces the highest intensity are metal halides (MH). Power compacts are the next step down from what I understand. Then stuff like T5's, then regular florescent bulbs, and the lowest light intensity is produced by incandescent bulbs.

If you want quantifiable ways to measure light, use a light meter.

The increments of measurement for light are lumens, lux, or footcandles.

Just remember from physics that light behaves as a wave and a particle.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I also want to add, I wouldn't subject your Psychopsis to temperatures below 60 F (16 C). They are intermediate to warm growing plants.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The "bulbs" you're referring to are called pseudobulbs.

These are the plant's food and water storage tank.

Out of curiosity, how large is your plant?

Your plant upon first purchasing most likely did not have enough pseudobulbs to produce flower spikes.

Flower(s), fruit(s), and seed(s) take a lot of energy for a plant to produce.

Psychopsis are sequential bloomers, they can also repeat bloom from the same spike for several seasons.

[Kpeters]

I think I'll try less fertilizer. It's been growing vegetatively like a weed (for an orchid).
Happy New Year!