New Order arrived, yay!!!!

[NYCorchidman]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

The grower has the perfect growing conditions for that plant and when they send the plant to you it can have advese effects on it and stunt it for a season or two depending on your growing conditions. Like phals shipped and the buds or flowers all fall off. I would just give it all the light it can use, after the time the grower said it should flower I'd keep it dry for awhile then start watering slowly. Once the new growth is almost mature, I'd switch to a high phosphorus/potassium food and finish the growth with that. Some catts and laelias grow a sheath, then take a few months to begin to grow a bud. Please let us know what happens. I will look into my extensive literature and find something for you.

My Pot. (now RLC I believe?) susan fender cinnamon stick came from a grower in Hawaii. Maybe it is still adjusting, but I got it last July. No plants ever took this long to adjust, actually pretty much all else grow and flower fine almost immediately after they come to my home.

It is growing well producing lots of roots all over, just that new leads are smaller and no flowers are made on them is the issue.

Regarding the dry condition for catts you mentioned, this one is a summer bloomer (August) but is supposed to bloom off every new growth. so there is no distinctive flowering season really. It is growing new leads that are about half way mature. I think it is not the right time to dry them as they are still growing and need quite a bit of water to grow.
Anything you find on susan fender cinnamon stick would be greatly appreciated.

My Lc. Golden Sands 'Elizabeth Off' AM/AOS under the same care has grown a nice large new lead with a sheath on it. The sheath is empty at the moment.
Any nice advice on Lc group would also be greatly appreciated.

Someone told me cattleya groups take basically the same care, but I find that hard to believe given the various groups involved into making all the hybrids.
Do they at least take similar care if they fall under the same subgroup like BLC (RLC), LC, ...??

I currently have BLC and LC. I would love to have laelia purpurata plants but they get huge!!!!

ok, that's it for now.

[camille1585]

Technically Blc, Lc, Slc... don't exist anymore, since Sophronitis and the south american Laelias got reclassified as Cattleya (So Cattleya purpurata!). So all those crosses are simply called Catts now.
Culturewise, I don't know if there are differences.

[james mickelso]

Hi, I just finished reading an article in the AOS journal from Sept 96 that says too much nitrogen will produce new growths at the expense of flowers. Good article. That is why I change the proportion of nitrogen to phosphorus/potassium when something doesn't bloom from a sheath. And I start when the new growth is halfway to maturing. Just something to try. My catt intermedia sometimes throw out new growth, sheaths, and then dries up with no flowers. And my Lawless Zauberflote has never bloomed from new growth. And each pbulb always puts out a sheath. But in that case I think I'm just not understanding it's growth cycle. Maybe it's genes are geared to bloom at a different time than I think. I have one catt/laelia/saph/? that has a huge sheath and it has been there for 3 months or more, and still no flower buds inside. Still green and producing sugar beads. Not all catts grow flower buds right after the sheath elongates. But it is fun to experiment and learn new tricks. Keep notes.

[NYCorchidman]

Camille- Thanks for the info. All the headache with the names come to an end now!

James- Thank you. The new growth is a litte more than half way matured on my susan fender cinnamon stick.
This plant grows buds as soon as the sheath is well above the very outer sheath (don't know that name for it) that surrounds the whole new lead.
Succeeding new growths never made sheaths at all, which I find very strange and frustrating.
I doubt it suffered the high nitrogen because I never fertilized much at all, and the new growths are much smaller then they are supposed to be.
I wil try the bloom booster to see if it does anything.
Thanks again for your time.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by NYCorchidman

I doubt it suffered the high nitrogen because I never fertilized much at all, and the new growths are much smaller then they are supposed to be.
.

That could explain why your growths are smaller and didn't bloom; not enough fertilizer! I think if you start using a balanced fert regularily, you should see improvements.

[james mickelso]

From what I read it isn't the amount of nitrogen but the ratio of n-p-k. The diminishing size of the new growths has me puzzled but may be because of the limited amount of food available like Camille suggested. All commercially grown orchids or any plants for that matter are grown in the optimum light, temp, and humidity. That is why they are near perfect for that species. We get them and seldom reproduce those requirements to the degree that the commercial grower had. Then we wonder why they don't flower as reliably, dwindle, rot, or die. Heck I'm just happy if what I grow survives but that's because I get most in such sad shape. Try and change culture slowly and take notes on what you do and its affdects. But light and nourishmentare my guess at this point. Please keep us informed. I'll look through my books and see if I run into anything else.

[NYCorchidman]

Thanks, all!

I guess cattleyas are heavy feeders? I basically treat all my orchids the same way except for paphiopediulms that gets even less fertilizer and less light but more water.
All (even one cattleya) seem to do well in regards to the size of leaves or new growths. The only exceptions are this susan fender cinnamon stick and one large white flowered phalaenopsis (whose leaves are slightly smaller each season and the flower count is around 5-4 instead of 10+, which was at the time of purchase 6 years ago, well, at least it blooms though!)

I will have to try to give more fertilizer on cinnamon stick. or maybe not enough watering? hmmmm

[james mickelso]

And todays orchids are so hybridized that there could be something in there that needs more or less of something at some certain time that is different than what we are used to. More light at a different time or fertilizer or proportion of, or more warmth, or a dormant period, or.... That makes it so interesting. Trying to find out what they need, figuring it out and triumphing and getting the perfect flowers. Bigger flowers or a different color than before. Anyway, I think it is fun. It's the trip and not the destination that make something whole. (There he goes again agnes. Go fetch him back before he makes everyone fall asleep).

[Vanda lover]

You really have a good point! I mostly fertilize the same, but less for the masd. and more for cyms and vandas. I'm always wanting to try better fertilizers, but who knows? Maybe it doesn't make that much difference.