Is it bad to Induce flowers?

[snowflake311]

So I did a little experiment with my orchids. I had them under 18 hours of light for a few months. I changed them to 12 hours of light a month ago. I now have 3 orchids in spike now.

I am pretty sure I did induce the spikes. Is it that bad to do this? I really did not think it would work so well.

the 3 in spike are my Zygonisia, Miltonia , and trusty yellow Onc.

[Leafmite]

If the orchids are healthy with good roots, they should be fine. Enjoy the flowers!

[PaphMadMan]

The 18 hours of light for a few months may have been the stressful part for some plants, but if a plant is healthy a spike is normal whenever conditions are right, whether you "caused" it or not. Unless your plants appear to be weak or unhealthy, just enjoy the flowers...

[jkofferdahl]

I can't imagine that the extra-long light period was helpful, though it's possible that the reduction contributed to the blooming. 18 hours of light per day gives the plant just six hours of dark, which is not enough. Think about how tired you feel after a week or two without enough sleep!

[snowflake311]

how long do you leave your lights on for the orchids?
I am going to leave them on 12 and 12 for the rest of the winter time. When summer comes around I will change them to more light.

Yes all plants are healthy and happy. thanks guys.

[Roey.P.]

Well for all plants professionals use phases of vegy grow and bloom. 18-6hours light is for grow. 12-12 is for bloom. That said... For orchid a lot of orchid professional nurseries adviced me not to give an orchid more then 16 hours of light as it too long to get me for it for photosyintasis period that actually exhaust it, so the next day it preform less.

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[estación seca]

I have been told, by indoor hydroponic growers, that cannabis only needs 1 hour of darkness to be fooled into thinking it spent the night. They cycle their lights 11 hours on / 1 hour off, in a room with no stray light, and get crops twice as fast.

[PaphMadMan]

The physiology of cultivated Cannabis is so far from anything that occurs in nature that it isn't a good model for anything else, and certainly not most orchids. And most cases where 18/6 light cycles are used are short life cycle annual crops. Trying to push a slow growing long-lived plant like most orchids that way is counter-productive in most cases. It may work short term to bring certain mass market orchids to blooming size quickly and uniformly, but it is not a good strategy if you want a healthy plant that blooms in season for many years.

[Ray]

I actually don't think that any of those genera bloom in response to day-length changes, so - echoing some of what was said above - you did not "induce" anything, but may have reduced the stress level enough that might have "allowed" the plant to bloom.

[PaphMadMan]

Perhaps not a reduction in stress, though they may well have been stressed. Possibly just super-charged for vegetative growth, suppressing flowering until the reduction in day length released the plant to flower, which it was more than ready to do with mature unflowered growths and abundant energy reserves.