My Orchid is not flowering, but..

[OntheWay]

Hello,

I am in trouble with a pot of orchid. I am keeping it in a place that receives morning lights then indirect light. Temperature is between 23-25°C in winter, 25-29°C in summer. Humidity is always above 40%, thanks to the aquarium in same room. I cannot spray it since its sitting on a fragile furniture, do not want to make it wet.

The sources from internet says, the stem that gives flowers must be cut from 3rd or 6th section so I cut it from 6th, although not sure if I missed to count one at very base..

One and a half year later, no sign of flowers, but as in pics below. I was expecting to see flowers but it give me a bunch of leaves from each of those stems, along with root-like,.. whatever they are, structures. Looks a bit weird, roots in the air

Can you please provide me some clues what should be done for maintenance, or does it need some kind of pruning etc?

[rbarata]

I was expecting to see flowers but it give me a bunch of leaves from each of those stems, along with root-like,.. whatever they are, structures. Looks a bit weird, roots in the air

Each one of those "structures" are new plants. We call them keikis. As soon as their roots are approx. 5 cm long you can remove them from the spike and pot them in bark.

The reason that your plants (phalaenopsis) are not flowering is, most certainly, the lack of a temp drop at night. They need a period of approx. a month with night temps as low as 15ºC to initiate the flowering process.

[OntheWay]

Originally Posted by rbarata

Each one of those "structures" are new plants. We call them keikis. As soon as their roots are approx. 5 cm long you can remove them from the spike and pot them in bark.

The reason that your plants (phalaenopsis) are not flowering is, most certainly, the lack of a temp drop at night. They need a period of approx. a month with night temps as low as 15ºC to initiate the flowering process.

Well, now this makes sense..

I am afraid, at home, room temps never go below 22-23°C no matter which season is, central heating.

The only solution I can think of is putting the pot next to window frame. Our windows are longer, from base to ceiling type so I am hoping to get some low temp air from edges of frames, in night.

A couple more questions then.. Firstly, which point is most appropriate to cut it (please check picture). I assume no:2 seems good but do not want to make mistake, therefore its better asking before.

Secondly, should I further prune whats remaining on the stem? and if yes, from where? Asking this because if it has an ability to produce same manner in the future, I do not want to castrate it with wrong pruning

TIA,

Alper

[Roberta]

I have not found temperature drop to be that critical. The professional growers use the technique to induce flowering at a specific time (the orchid that blooms a week before Mother's Day is worth a lot more than one that blooms a week after) What I HAVE found is that light duration is very important - in most houses, the sun shifts so that there are perhaps, at best, 4-5 hours of good light, then it becomes very indirect. With a fluorescent light 12 hours a day to supplement what came in the window, I was able to achieve a much higher percentage of Phalaenopsis that rebloomed than without it. LED light would be fine, too.. anything full spectrum.

[rbarata]

A couple more questions then.. Firstly, which point is most appropriate to cut it (please check picture). I assume no:2 seems good but do not want to make mistake, therefore its better asking before.

Cut nº1 or 2, both are ok, but I would let the roots grow a litle bit more. They seem to be ok to give support to the keiki on their own but if you let it be a litle more attached to the motehr plant it won't harm.

About cuts 3 and 4...I don't follow the practice to cut the spikes unless they are dead and brown/dry. But to those who follow that practice, the cuts are always above the node.
I don't do it because while the spikes are green, they help the plant to get energy from the photosynthesis.
Anothe reason is that the blooming process requires a lot of energy from the plant. Why force it to spend it in reblooms?

[bil]

Keikis from a phal, I just can't be bothered with.

I cut the spikes as low as poss so that the cut is just above a node, and I dust the cut with mancozeb power (a fungicide)

If your plant is getting proper light, temp and so on, you simply can't stop them from flowering.

[Deena]

It needs food to flower i.e. fertilizer. If you water the orchid with simple water all this time, it doesn't have enough nutrients to develop flowers. I've found that the temperature drop isn't as important as periodically feeding your orchid. This seems to be a common beginner mistake to never use fertilizer and then wonder why the orchid isn't flowering - I did this to my very first orchid and it just grew leaves and keikis for two years.

The fertilizer that has worked well for me is Better-Gro Orchid Plus 20-14-13 mix. I dissolve about 1 teaspoon or less of this mix in a gallon of water and soak my orchids in this solution once every 2-3 weeks depending on humidity. Soaking time is about 15-30 minutes, and you need to drain them well so that no water remains in the pots. My orchids flower all year round after this treatment.

Another great thing to do is to take a spray bottle with diluted fertilizer solution and spray it on the air roots and the base of the plant. This tends to stimulate the orchid to grow new roots, which doesn't seem to be a problem for the orchid in your pictures, but in case the orchid has few air roots it's a great way to encourage it to grow some 'backup' roots.

[OntheWay]

Thanks for all replies, It seems focus of problems are first on light and second on temperature. I guess putting the pot next to a window may help for both issues.

After replanting the keikis, should I apply any fertilizers or any other special points I should care of ? One thing I understand is, roots of keiki must be placed under barks to preserve humidity. Anything else?

[OntheWay]

Originally Posted by Deena

It needs food to flower i.e. fertilizer. If you water the orchid with simple water all this time, it doesn't have enough nutrients to develop flowers. I've found that the temperature drop isn't as important as periodically feeding your orchid. This seems to be a common beginner mistake to never use fertilizer and then wonder why the orchid isn't flowering - I did this to my very first orchid and it just grew leaves and keikis for two years.

The fertilizer that has worked well for me is Better-Gro Orchid Plus 20-14-13 mix. I dissolve about 1 teaspoon or less of this mix in a gallon of water and soak my orchids in this solution once every 2-3 weeks depending on humidity. Soaking time is about 15-30 minutes, and you need to drain them well so that no water remains in the pots. My orchids flower all year round after this treatment.

Another great thing to do is to take a spray bottle with diluted fertilizer solution and spray it on the air roots and the base of the plant. This tends to stimulate the orchid to grow new roots, which doesn't seem to be a problem for the orchid in your pictures, but in case the orchid has few air roots it's a great way to encourage it to grow some 'backup' roots.

Thanks for the fertilizer info, I currently have one fertilizer specific to orchids (akerne's rain mix, pic below). But never thought of soaking the pot fully, was just watering it with small amount of fert. mixed, although very rarely, like once in a few months.. I will apply your advises, too.

[rbarata]

I use Akerne Rain Mix. You can use half the recommended concentration every week.