How Often do Paphs/Phrags Bloom?

[Love my Orchids]

I have a healthy 4 year old Phrag.Grand that I keep in a south window. It goes outside in the spring - fall. It has never bloomed. I fert with CAL-Mag and Neptune Harvest fish fert alternately. Looking for help to see some blooms.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Love my Orchids

I have a healthy 4 year old Phrag.Grand that I keep in a south window. It goes outside in the spring - fall. It has never bloomed. I fert with CAL-Mag and Neptune Harvest fish fert alternately. Looking for help to see some blooms.

1) Phrag Grande doesn't need a great deal of light - all of my phrags and paphs are alongside my phals.

2) What is the formula of the cal-mag fertilizer?

3) How often do you feed it?

4) What concentration do you apply of each?

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by Ray

1) Phrag Grande doesn't need a great deal of light - all of my phrags and paphs are alongside my phals.

Really? I am giving them pretty high light. Are you getting blooms? They also do not need much fertilizer. Once or twice a year. I'm following the Ed's Orchids school of phrags, as far as the ferts.

---------- Post added at 07:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:57 PM ----------

Oh, a phap and phrag are sympodial orchids just like Cattleyas. The difference is that Paphiopedilums and Phragmipediums and their allence do not have Pseudo bulbs and their roots are never away from moist "medium." (Phrags take more moisture than Paphs). So the Old growth (oldest fan) will have baby growths which become fans and they have their own new growths. In several years the older growth will put out a flower and then when the flower is spent it will linger around for a few years, but it is actually Kaput-- it is feeding the young ones with its sugar (stored in the leaves). They grow and have their own flowers. The "patch" expands. Many people will divide at some point, or an accident might happen, but growth-wise, you can get quite a large plant with multiple flowers if it goes for long enough. (It is quite similar to the Iris plant).

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Optimist

Really? I am giving them pretty high light. Are you getting blooms? They also do not need much fertilizer. Once or twice a year. I'm following the Ed's Orchids school of phrags, as far as the ferts.

My plants are out on my deck for 7+ months a year. The deck is on the north side of my house, and they are in its shade. Clear overhead sky, but never any direct sunlight. In winter they are in my kitchen, on the opposite side of the windows they’re outside of all summer. They are Low-E windows, so between the reduced sunlight intensity back-scatter and the coatings reduction, I think the winter light level is “survivable”.

I feed all my plants simultaneously, targeting a 100 ppm N flooding once a week, year round. In the summer, when it’s really hot, they might get plain water as often as daily, in-between. They are in S/H culture, so may not need the water, but the phals in more traditional culture often do, and as an EOAO (Equal Opportunity Abuser of Orchids), I just soak everything.

Yes, they bloom. Petite Anquette just finished, Lucky Girl has been ongoing since December, and Sorcerer’s Apprentice is sending up 2 spikes. On the Paph side, venustum finished several weeks ago, a rothschildianum and Yang-Ji Apple are in bloom currently, and I saw a bud forming on Duguesclin yesterday.