C walkeriana - Tips for Growing & Blooming

[catwalker808]

Tucker85
I have seen a couple of your C walkeriana SOS posts in the past year or more. But this is the first time you posted a photo of your plant.
Looking at your plant, recalling your watering habits & knowing quite a bit about the weather in Florida, these are my opinions. (I have also seen many C walkerianas very well grown & blooming in Florida, so I don’t think climate is the problem.) I believe you are probably not meeting their basic needs.

I believe that water is your biggest issue. Looking at your plant, with the number of pbulbs,, the plant is quite mature. However, all of the bulbs are fairly skinny and look a little shriveled (even the newer ones). The fact that your plant is trying to bloom 3 times a year also says that it is desperately trying to bloom in its reproductive cycle.
At this time of year, at least the newer bulbs should be 2-3 times as fat as yours are & should be very smooth (since they are newer). Your roots should also be much fatter. The newer roots should also be longer or trying to seek moisture & sticking to the basket. This is based on the size & maturity of your plant. I think your open basketed plant is water starved during some crucial parts of the year
I know that Florida is very hot & rains a lot during the summer, but based on reading some of your past postings, I believe that you are withholding water during a very critical time in the fall & winter … prior to & during the blooming period.

It is a myth that C walkerianas need to have a prolonged dry period. Yes, in nature, their habitat experiences a 5 month rainless period. But the plants are not without water during that period. The habitat experiences nightly fog, which drenches plants, roots, tree bark & ground surfaces. (Try standing outside in a fog for 10 hours). The sun quickly dries off surface moisture, however, C walkeriana’s roots retain moisture in a sponge-like manner, until the next night’s drenching fog. So the plants require & get moisture throughout the year, even during the cooler rainless months.

There is also a myth that C walkeriana plants grow in full sunlight throughout the year. Perhaps this is largely perpetuated by published photos of plants blooming on bare trees during their rainless winter season. Those same leafless trees are in full leaf during the summer rainy period. & provide lots of shade. The trees are leafless during the cooler winter months.

We have grown thousands of C walkeriana plants over the years. In cultivation, I have observed over the past 25-30 years, that during the heat of summer, C walkeriana plants prefer shade, down to 3000-4000 foot candles (or 60-70% shade in high sunlight areas. They will do ok in higher heat & light, but they will sulk during summer. A day-night differential of 10-15 degrees F is very important, although plants will still survive with a lesser day-night swing, especially, if a bigger day-night swing is not possible during summer.

The 10-15 degree F day-night swing is especially important in the early fall & later. With this temperature swing, the newly maturing bulbs will store lots of food & energy for the bloom cycle. This is how the bulbs become very fat & smooth. Sufficient moisture is also very important then, because plants are preparing to bloom in the late fall or early winter. In locales with very distinct summers & cold winters (& in nature with limited food resourses & very distinct growing & blooming seasons), plants will only produce only one fat bulb(relative to height). And it will only bloom once from that bulb. In cultivation, with abundant food & water, more bulbs may be produced during the growing season & a plant may sometimes bloom twice in succession (without producing new bulbs in between), since it has abundant food reserves from the multiple bulbs.

Tucker85. Back to the water issues. If you withhold water after your rainy summer, the maturing bulbs may become shriveled instead of becoming plump & smooth. If there is very little day-night temperature differential, bulbs may also be skinny. But I don’t think that is the case in Florida. You have a greater day-night differential than we do. Your buds blasting on every bloom attempt may be due to insufficient moisture at a critical time of bulb s maturing & buds developing. Of course, some of your buds might be blasting from being exposed to prolonged rain. But that shouldn’t be happening 6 times in a row, especially this late in the year. Anyway, I believe you should try to resolve these water issues before giving away your plants.

Another myth is that you should never move a plant that is in bud or bloom. You shouldn’t move it if it is going from low light to full sunlight, or from outside to air conditioned indoors or from high humidity to very low humidity. But if you can meet the plant’s basic needs, it’s not the moving that affects it as much as the degree & suddenness of change. I move my C walkerianas every year, as they develop bloom growths or even later when they develop buds, to protect buds & flowers from heavy rain. Going from a shade house to lower light, lower temperatures, under cover, the buds develop more slowly & produce better quality blooms.
By all means, don’t hesitate to take a budding plant in out of the rain, extreme heat or cold.

To recap, C walkerianas need lots of moisture throughout the year, especially if the plants are mounted or in open baskets. I grow in a warm area, with summer highs of 92 F & winter lows of 49-52 F. We have a hot dry summer (with sprinkler irrigation) & a little cooler rainy “winter”.
Even in cold climates, if the roots dry out daily, this means plants need frequent watering. One of the best cold weather C walkeriana hobbyists I know lives in Japan. His summer temps go above 100 F, easily. In winter, the temps in his heated greenhouse range from 70 F days to 50 F nights, or lower. He waters daily because the heated air is very dry & cool air doesn’t hold much moisture. When it is very cold, he may bypass watering only for a few days. But plants do need moisture throughout the year. Other hobbyists there grow plants even colder during winter.

Unless they undergo sudden major changes when budding, C walkeriana plants can successfully BLOOM in temps as high as 85-60 F (day-night) or as low as 60-45 F), or anywhere in between.

smweaver. You’re correct in your observation that the smaller, more compact coerulea forms of C walkeriana are more flexible in their blooming requirements. Because the bulbs & leaves are generally more compact, the plants may be developing & maturing more quickly.

Consequently, more bulbs may also develop during the growing season. We also grow lots of the tipos & semi-alba types, which don’t seem very much more challenging … as long as you meet their food, water & light requirements.

Oh yes, one more thing. I believe that day length / night length is a critical factor in inducing blooms. Summer day lengths of 13-14 hours & night lengths of 10-11 hours need to change to day lengths of 10-11 hours & night lengths (darkness) of 13-14 hours to initiate flower growths. For a couple of weeks. That means no frequent interruption of darkness periods by bright street lights or frequent late night visits to your greenhouse.