Stanhopea growth cycle
I won an old stanhopea from an orchid auction this Spring. I repotted it right away, saw two very young spikes getting ready to emerge. I splitted the plant into two pieces and repotted them in chicken wire baskets lined with coconut fiber. I put both plants outside on a shaded balcony, with dabbled sunlight from morning till early afternoon. Both grew two new bulbs and plenty of roots, but no flowers. I assumed the stress from repotting killed them.
When outside temperature dipped to around 50F 4-5 weeks ago, I moved all my orchids (mostly cat, vanda and den) to a semi greenhouse environment in an all glass sunroom with a mini-fogger and ceiling fan. The relative humidity in the sunroom was kept around 70%, and night temperature was around 60F. Since then, all plants growth seemed to slow down. Most of the green root tips shrink and turned white. But I thought this is natural for them.
However, the two Stan plants bucked the trend. I saw two seemingly healthy tips emerged from each plant, they look like they could be new shoots. Is this natural for Stan? Do they grew new bulbs during Fall? And when do they produce flowers?
Thanks,
pax
Last edited by cpeters5; 10-22-2014 at 12:48 PM..
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