Stanhopea platyceras bud drop

[Manfred Busche]

After consultation with Marilyn Light, Ottawa, I believe that you are subjecting your plant to an overdose
of Red Light (!! 16 hours per day !!), which overdose has encouraged a spike plus a spike plus another spike,
but stands in the way of your plant to build a flower...

If I were in your shoes, I would now gradually, over 10 days, reduce the duration of the Red Tube to
6 (six) hours per day from 16 hours - i.e. reduce by 1 hour every day...

After 10 days, the red tube would be on for 6 hours and the blue tube would be on for 16 hours and fertilisation
would be a composition of 5-50-17 / 400 ppm every 3 days, given in the morning.

This may or may not work... hopefully it does...

[AmandaTom]

Thank you Manfred. The store where I bought the light caters to hydroponics growers (read "indoor pot farmers") and I imagine the advice they gave me is more germane to growing cannabis than orchids....The lights are on a timer so I will have to manually disconnect the red one every day. Perhaps I should just replace it with another blue one, after the plant flowers.

I did the math to get a 400ppm solution and I am following the every three days regimen. I will post a photo if I get a flower in 5 weeks or so. I sure hope so, after all this advice and hand wringing!

[Manfred Busche]

Watering: to use rain water is best.
Any other water gets better if allowed to stand in a large storage container (cover)
for a couple of days before use.
Chloride will bubble up and out, some heavy molecules will sink to the bottom.