Zygopetalum deformed first flowers

[Dalachin]

Is it common for flowers on a first flowering if a zygo to be malformed? On one, the lip is fused to a petal, and the other two have underdeveloped lips. Nice fragrance though. First flowering of my first zygo… from SVO last April.

[Roberta]

I would consider that unusual. Especially on three different plants. Might be worth a message to Fred Clarke to get his input. Like, did he see that in the plants that he has in the nursery? That's the sort of thing I have seen on Catts treated with Superthrive. So it could be cultural, or could be genetic.

[Louis_W]

Dalachin this is all on one plant correct? I would wait until a second blooming to make the call. Unless you are treating the plant with any unusual chemicals I would dismiss this as a first blooming quirk and only call it a pattern if it blooms like this again.

[Dalachin]

All on one plant. There are three blooms on one spike, all are weird. I don’t use superthrive. I use kelpak, but only on repot or as a supplenrnt and definitely not since this plant has been budding. I thought I might send pics to Fred and see what he thinks.

[Leafmite]

It might just be a first blooming or it might be a genetic issue...it might take a few blooming cycles to see which it is. Does Kelpak have any effect on blooms? I do not use it so I would not know. I hope you will update us on this.

[Dalachin]

I sent the pics to Fred and he says “Looks deformed…. Might be because it is not well rooted yet, I see you repotted it. I would flower it again with a more established plant.”

So i guess we’ll just wait and see what the next growth brings, fingers crossed!

[Dalachin]

Update: it is flowering again on two spikes, and most of the flowers are well formed! Two are still a bit off, but a great improvement.

[Roberta]

Oh so much better!

Thought comes to mind... it is very possible that in the nursery it was dosed with hormones (super thrive or such) to accelerate growth. That stuff can definitely cause deformed flowers. The new growth likely had a chance to develop naturally, in your care, and gol the stuff out of its "system".

[Blueszz]

It's a beautiful plant, I love the color of the flowers.