Frustrated with Psychopsis Psychopsis Mendenhall 'Hildos' - Doesn't Spike

[alexharisiadis]

So, I've had a Psychopsis Mendenhall 'Hildos' for several years now that started with 4 or 5 pbulbs and leaves, and has now grown into a lovely monster of 9 or so pbulbs and leaves.

And all this in spite of a cat attack and an ill-advised repotting on my part. It continues to grow new leaves and bulbs regularly and recovered from that repotting nicely.

But, to the point of this post, despite all this vegetative growth, the plant has never once spiked under my care. I was "frustrated" this morning when watering to see that yet another new bulb/leaf complex was growing.

While the plant is clearly healthy, something is not right with my culture. The plant sits in a southern exposure along with a cattleya, a dendrobium, and a sharry baby oncidium (the latter two haven't bloomed under my care either, but that's a story for another post). I have an ultrasonic humidifier next to those plants that puts the ambient humidity of that windowsill at >50% humidity. I feed the plants weakly-weekly with a very dilute 20-20-20 fertilizer solution and I regularly mist the plants too.

So, the question is---what gives?

[estación seca]

Sharry Baby is pretty easy to flower, so the problem might be with more than just the Psychopsis. I wonder whether more light might help.

[alexharisiadis]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Sharry Baby is pretty easy to flower, so the problem might be with more than just the Psychopsis. I wonder whether more light might help.

Well, I'm limited to two exposures in our apartment -- the southern ones in our living area, and a western exposure upstairs in our bedroom area. The western exposure is where all of my phals reside.

The aforementioned plants (catt, psychopsis, dendrobium, and oncidium) all sit in the brightest spot of the southern exposure, so does this mean I need to supplement their light with some artificial grow lights?

[Dollythehun]

The main reason for not flowering is lack of light. Even a clip on LED will help.

[orchidsarefun]

Maybe your plants are not close enough to window? I would only fertilise 1x per month. It's possible you are encouraging vegetative growth instead of spikes.

[alexharisiadis]

Just ordered some grow lights, so let's give this a shot and see if that will be the kick in the pants they need. Will report back!