catasetum penang, 2 male and 2 female

[hosshead]

Aah.
Well that certainly explains these male flowers, as my greenhouse is on the shady-er side of things, due to my love of stans and the catasetums and...okay, SO MANY of the lower light orchids.
Do you think east window and artificial tube light culture is likely to produce the female flowers then?
This plant lives in the shady ambient light section of the greenhouse.

I did not see a specific article on temperatures.
I read that remark somewhere in an orchid discussion on the internet. Which is certainly NO pedigree for a belief, it's just one of the few remarks regarding production of gender that has stuck with me. So, I am certainly eager to read responses to that and fixes with the way I understand this awesome culture.
Again, my THANKS!

[catasetum-ian]

Originally Posted by hosshead

Aah.
Well that certainly explains these male flowers, as my greenhouse is on the shady-er side of things, due to my love of stans and the catasetums and...okay, SO MANY of the lower light orchids.
Do you think east window and artificial tube light culture is likely to produce the female flowers then?
This plant lives in the shady ambient light section of the greenhouse.

I did not see a specific article on temperatures.
I read that remark somewhere in an orchid discussion on the internet. Which is certainly NO pedigree for a belief, it's just one of the few remarks regarding production of gender that has stuck with me. So, I am certainly eager to read responses to that and fixes with the way I understand this awesome culture.
Again, my THANKS!

no idea about how likely east window with artificial light would produce a female, sometimes you can have the plant in light condition till they basically got sunburn but still you get male flowers.
also in the book, it is stated "though it is not always possible to predict the sex of the flower, but it is wise to play by the percentage".
currently i am experimenting with low lighting and also mild 'starvation' for plants that i really want the male flowers. i used to try only with low lighting in the past.

[hosshead]

yeah...I kind of freak about burnt leaves...until I remember that these are deciduous anyway.
I will advance some of these to the dappled bright light outside the greenhouse and see what they do.
I have found that many of my orchids are more likely to bloom if they get a little stressed and then watered up and fed more heavily after the stress.
I think it's a response to the ,"I'm going to die, better reproduce!" thing, and then the food supports the bloom better.
It's just delicate about how far you need to stress the plant.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by catasetum-ian

so far i had only read about lighting influence of sexual dimorphism on catasetum flowers, have not come across anything about temperature. perhaps someone who had come across such article can enlightened me about this. thanks in advance
higher lighting condition favors development of female flowers. however logically high lighting intensity also means higher temperature.

Ian is right with this. This is a general rule, however and not necessarily always true. Large, mature plants (ie. 5 or more large p-bulbs) will often throw female flowers no matter what the lighting conditions. Even younger plants that receive tons of fertilizer and water can do the same.