Cambria with 5 new PB's and no spike. Why?

[almuccio]

Hi everyone. I'm new here. I'm not exactly a newbie with orchids, but I'm certainly a far cry from being any type of expert. I found out about a year ago that it is possible to over-fertilize orchids. Oops... But, my Phal's are recovering nicely with new growth on spikes on one of them and new leaves and root growth on the other.

However, my cambria-specific type unknown- is continuing to produce new PB's, though each one seems to be smaller than the one before and they are all very leafy. I discovered a couple of months back that the accordion-like pleats in the leaves mean I wasn't watering enough, so I have increased the watering and the new growth seems to be smooth and healthy. But, still no spikes. I'm a pretty patient person as long as I know what's going on. I just don't know what's going on here and would appreciate some insight.

I am currently making sure that it gets cooled down at night in an attempt to spur new spike growth. I'm only fertilizing every 3-4 weeks.

What I'm wondering about is if I should definitely re-pot at this point. Could it be that the pot is too crowded now? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks a million!Attachment 56032

[WhiteRabbit]

Welcome - glad you found us!

Those growths likely aren't mature enough to spike - most Oncidium alliance spike on growth that is near
mature (a few will spike before pbulbs develop, but most spike after there is a near mature/mature pbulb).
If the plant is getting sufficient light, and culture has been good, it may spike after the new growth has grown some more.

I don't know what strength fertilizer you use, so it's hard to say if it could take more fertilizer, or not.

I generally don't go up in pot size til the plant is growing over the sides of the pot, or if I am repotting to replace old media, and can't fit the roots back into the same pot.

[zxyqu]

I'm thinking it's possibly the roots, or a combination of the roots in the media it is in. Wrinkling like that would take some terrible underwatering, and I just dont know if that would tell the whole story. With each pbulb being smaller, and wrinkled I'm inclined to think the media is bad, and/or the roots are rotting. The increased watering should help, and I think I see some good roots in one of the pics coming from a new pbulb, but I might take it out of the pot and see what the roots look like.
While I've gotten one of my oncs to bloom with accordion like leaves, I wouldn't hold my breath on this little guy/gal spiking just yet.
Check on the roots and post a pic if you can. Hopefully this/we can help! Good Luck

[almuccio]

Thank y'all for the input! I'll have to get some potting mix and new pots just in case I need to repot at this point. Maybe I can take care of that on the weekend and give my guys a little room to spread their wings and bloom.

I've also noticed the new root growth from the base of the PB's and am encouraged by that, of course. That seemed to be the first step before my Phals started to bloom again, and I'm hoping the Cambria is following their pattern.

If I can, I'll post a picture of the roots after I've taken a look at them.

Thanks again!

[silken]

Depending how old or broken down the media is, you could re-pot. But I wouldn't increase the pot size. In the second photo it sort of looks like its in too big of a pot. Most orchids develop root rot easily if the pot is too big. Also, it could be the lighting or just the photo, but the leaves look quite dark green. this may indicate it could use some more light.

[almuccio]

Hi everybody. I checked the roots and they look healthy, i.e. white and solid. The medium also looks good to my untrained eye. I did not repot. The plant is sitting in an East-facing window and gets good solid direct light until about noon, then the indirect light from outside. I thought that Cambria are East window plants. I have a West-facing window I could put it in, but I don't want to burn it up. What do y'all think?

Thanks!

[silken]

Hard to say with the lighting. I looked on OrchidWiz and 50% of the parentage is unknown. For the rest of the known parentage, about half of it likes medium light, 1/4 likes bright light and 1/4 low light. It may be OK in dappled light conditions. So its sort of a toss up. One thing that is mentioned is to watch water quality so it must be a bit sensitive to high pH. Do you use rain water or RO water?

You mentioned over fertilizing a while ago. If it was a high nitrogen fertilizer, it may have put all its energy into all the new smaller growths and you they just need to mature now. It might be good to start using a bloom booster fertilizer now too (large middle number) if you aren't already as I notice many of the awarded plants were in late summer and fall. So maybe it will bloom by then. Good luck with it. It also sounds like the known parentage mostly likes cool or intermediate temps.