Catt Charlie Brown won't bloom

[Donald]

My Charlie Brown just will not bloom and is the slowest growing orchid in my small collection. I have had no problems with any other of my orchids as far as growth and blooming but this "guy" continues to be stubborn. It was repotted last year.....great root structure. It, along with the others, is grown under lights during the winter and then are brought out, here in Massachusetts, in the summer and are grown, except for "Charlie",m under shade cloth until the weather no longer permits. This one has me puzzled and any suggestions, will of course, be welcome with open arms.
Thank you.
Donald in Worcester, Mass

[tuvoc]

Hi Donald. My experience with reluctant bloomers is more light. A LOT more light. Do it gradually, and don't worry if you get a bit of sunburn at the beginning. It will be fine. Some people also say to decrease the nitrogen when you fertilize. Hope this helps.

Kim

[Donald]

Thanks tuvoc. Last year, and again this year I noticed that even after gradually giving it more light the leaves took on a reddish hue. Not burnt. Just red. When I took it into a shadier location the plant went back to green. Could this be a problem, or should I not worry? Thank you for your reply.

[tuvoc]

In some hybrids, a reddish hue to the leaves is a good sign. I don't know who Charley's ancestors are, but I wouldn't worry about it.

Kim

[paulemar]

I have found that a reddish hue can sometimes be relative. A plant that is not getting enough light may show the reddish hue when given increased light. Mind you that it still may not be enough light for consistant blooming, but a reaction to the light level relative to what it was getting before. The plant may slowly adjust to the increased light level and the reddish hue become less pronounced. Increasing the light level a bit again could do the trick. I almost always look for a light greenish color of leaves to be a good indicator of enough light for most catts.
Paul

[DebsC]

I agree with the more light theory, but slowly increase the light. I hate seeing sunburn on the leaves and sometimes it opens the plant up to bacterial infections. Just my humble opinion.

[catwalker808]

Charlie Brown was registered as Eplc Charlie Brown. The parents were ((L milleri x C aurantiaca) = Lc Rojo) x Epidendrum cordigerum. Yes, I know that the parent names have changed. However, this is the parentage.

C. aurantiaca is a consistent orange spring bloomer and of fairly large size, although slender. L. milleri is a miniature rupicolus red. Both have tall multifloral spikes and Lc. Rojo is a short plant with multifloral spikes of 1-1/2" bright reds. The second parent is Encyclia cordigera (formerly Epi. cordigerum), which blooms in mid to late spring.

Charlie Brown, like Rojo, blooms in spring, March-April. For this particular hybrid, the reddish leaf coloration in the summer is a sign of stress (too much light). Plants will normally put out sheaths, which turn into dry sheaths, as early as mid fall. Do not remove or open these dry sheaths, since they are what will bloom in spring.

The bloom season and our experience with the plants seem to suggest that the plants require 55-60% for a few weeks to initiate buds and as bright light as possible in winter and spring.
Donald. 2 questions: Do you get any sheaths on your plant? Are you possibly growing your plant in the winter with constantly warm temps ... that is, not enough change in day to night temps, or not low enough temps?

[tuvoc]

You beat me to it, catwalker. I did some searching, and found the same info. I have an aurantiaca, and have found it will bloom best with higher light, and more water than most of my other Catts. The sheath thing is also true. When mine blooms, it does so off of both old and new growths at the same time. And Charley Brown is a really nice red.

Kim

[Donald]

Thank you, everyone. Catwalker. I do not get any sheaths. During the winter my room varies from the mid 70's during the day down to very low 60's a night. What really has me confused, as I posted earlier, is that all the other orchids bloom, some profusely.

[catwalker808]

Donald. The issue might still be insufficient light. Without knowing what kinds of other orchids you are blooming, it may be that are lower light types.

Again, not knowing how long you have had this plant not blooming, another possibility is that although the plant is in good spirits not, it may not have had a good growing season last summer, not enough light last fall and therefore did not even sheath. Now that it is in more vigor and you go forth with all the advice from these plant doctors above, you may very well bloom your happy plant. With this plant's background ... especially a rupicolous Laelia like L. milleri ... it needs to be vigorous and needs good light to bloom.