I want to give up on my Phals

[sii]

Help!I don't know what to do! I have had phalaenopsis orchids for many years now and I can't get them to bloom. I've changed their medium - used the Schultz pack, then I changed to moss. I've watered with room temperature water when they looked dry and even tried watering with the Schultz fertilizer (diluted as per instructions) I have 4 orchids by a south facing window so they get alot of morning sun - almost direct sun. I keep the blind drawn so they don't get to hot. I see roots growing and sometimes I see new leaves but no blooms. I have 2 keiki's in the same pot. Don't know if that'll help them. I also have another orchid by a south window downstairs on my table, but doesn't get any direct light. It has also grown a new leaf, but no blooms. I'll try adding pictures. Please help. Hubby wants me to throw them out.

[jrodpad]

Welcome to the OB. I'm sure that you'll find people here who can help... with the phals at least, you're on your own with your hubby.

I'm not a phal expert - but I'd say from the pics yours look generally healthy to me. The leaves are a nice green color and they look plump and smooth. The surface roots look healthy too. They leaves are slightly red/purple at the edges so it looks like they're getting enough light.

Have you been giving them a temperature drop in the fall? It's my understanding that with phals, if they have a fairly constant temperature in the day and in the night, that they'll assume that it must be summer and continue to grow leaves to maximize their exposure to the summer sun. Once you introduce a serious nighttime temperature drop (15 degrees or so) they think that the summer is over, they stop focusing their energy on leaf production and they start focusing their energy on... reproduction. They'll use all the excess energy they stored up during the "summer" from all those leaves and start putting out flower spikes.

It works for me - I give my phals a few weeks of nighttime temps around 55 F, and I generally see flower spikes in the winter.

Good luck and don't give up!

- J

[Hedge]

It could be down to a day length problem - how far north are you? Also many of my Phals flower after a short spell of cool nights in autumn - the diurnal range (difference between night and day) temperatures needs to be about 10 degrees F.

Hope this helps and welcome to the board - somebody here will know what you need to do, and we'll all try to help!

[Swamper]

What's in the Schultz fertilizer? What's the NPK ratio? That is very strange for 4 diff orchids not to bloom but I don't have too many phals to speak from any real experience. I would love to hear what others say though. Good Luck! Oh and welcome to the OB.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I'd recommend a temperature drop too.

[Izzie]

Originally Posted by Hedge

It could be down to a day length problem - how far north are you?

Besides the temperature drop, I second this as well.
Be sure that if you have any artificial lighting near the plants, have it off after the sun goes down. Otherwise they do not get the flowering cue in the fall from shortening day length (and drop in temperature).

Some people have success with cracking a window near the plants in the fall to get that area a little cooler at night.

[sii]

Thanks all,

Hedge - re: how far north I am - my closest US neighbour/location would be Buffalo/Niagara Falls. If I need to drop the temperature, do I need to wait until fall or is there something I can do now?

Swamper - the Schultz food says 19-31-17. Should I water with fertilizer each time?

:-)

[Hedge]

Waiting till fall is easiest, mine are on a windowsill in the kitchen, unlit after about 7.30 pm, and behind the curtains (which I don't close anyway). Otherwise you'd have to heat the room during the day so that there was a noticeable drop at night.

[goofy]

I use Schultz 19-31-17 too. I water mine with this fertilizer once a week. If the phals are too dry before the one week period, I water them with just water. In the fall if your phals live in the same warm house with you, you can bring them to the garage at night. That's what I did since I had only 6 phals last year. On the days that I was to lazy to move them, I cracked the window open a little. They all produced spikes for me last year.

Thuy

[quiltergal]

Hello sii. Welcome to OB. I agree that night time temp drops are the key to success. Waiting until fall will be the easiest. It sounds like they are getting enough light. Sometimes if the nitrogen concentration is too high in your fertilizer it can actually inhibit blooming, and occasionally cause a plant to create Keikis instead of flowers. If your N is 19 you should be using .5 teaspoon/gallon H2O. That gives you 125 PPM of nitrogen which is optimal for most orchids.