Oncidium hybrid skipped flowering?

[WhiteRabbit]

Sounds like a plan.

I do know that one of my Onc alliance (Odontioda Margarete Holm) - always a reliable, and fabulous bloomer for me - another member commented he had one for years, and it never bloomed - mine was growing in cool temps in winter, (I keep the heat set pretty low), and always in low light, and being the parents of this hybrid are from generally cool growing genera, it's likely the cooler temps are the trick for that particular one.

If yours doesn't bloom within the next year, it may require something different.

gl!

[Gage]

Originally Posted by opal

There is only one possible explanation for low light and that is that those growths came out of the middle of clump of bulbs instead from sides and they had very little space or light for that matter as they were kind of overshadowed by larger leaves/bulbs.

That could explain it. I read a rather extensive thread on another forum about thinning out a thickly grown Catt. I know it's different genre, but adequate light for blooming applies to all genre, albeit different minimum per each genre respectively. In the thread, he explained how it wasn't going to bloom from all of the new growths "within" the plant, but only from the ones on the outer edge because they were the only ones getting adequate light. So he removed a lot of the larger older leaves to make room for the newer psb's to get the light they need to bloom. I am not suggesting you do this, although dividing and rearranging may just do the trick.

[Bud]

Opal,
I dont know what you want to read or learn about solving your problem about a non flowering oncidium...you were given sound and pertinent solutions by our members who have years of experience on growing orchids. Some of them are masteral students in botany.
But I will not blatantly stress my plants just to make it bloom. And yet...I have many plants suddenly bloomed for me maybe because of the early snowstorm that just happened in the east coast (altho all my orchids were indoors they can sense the sudden turbulence outside due to barometric and low pressures)
I have several oncidiums and I have no problems having blooms from them: I use seaweed mix fertilizer weekly and I follow the culture of the plant and I have established a watering regimen.
I am a windowsill grower.
Your oncidium is sulking...I dont know how to make it happy and healthy once again...its up to you and your gut instincts.

[opal]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

Sounds like a plan.

I do know that one of my Onc alliance (Odontioda Margarete Holm) - always a reliable, and fabulous bloomer for me - another member commented he had one for years, and it never bloomed - mine was growing in cool temps in winter, (I keep the heat set pretty low), and always in low light, and being the parents of this hybrid are from generally cool growing genera, it's likely the cooler temps are the trick for that particular one.

If yours doesn't bloom within the next year, it may require something different.

gl!

. It has a deadline for blooming: August 2012. Then I'll divide it into smaller clumps (and hope it will survive as most roots won't).

Originally Posted by Gage

That could explain it. I read a rather extensive thread on another forum about thinning out a thickly grown Catt. I know it's different genre, but adequate light for blooming applies to all genre, albeit different minimum per each genre respectively. In the thread, he explained how it wasn't going to bloom from all of the new growths "within" the plant, but only from the ones on the outer edge because they were the only ones getting adequate light. So he removed a lot of the larger older leaves to make room for the newer psb's to get the light they need to bloom. I am not suggesting you do this, although dividing and rearranging may just do the trick.

Very interesting, but there is no way I would remove a healthy leaf from an orchid. Even with dying ones I leave it to the plant to collect all nutrients from it before removing. Right now, the newest bulbs are on top of all others, and they should get the light they need.

Originally Posted by Bud

Opal,
I dont know what you want to read or learn about solving your problem about a non flowering oncidium...you were given sound and pertinent solutions by our members who have years of experience on growing orchids. Some of them are masteral students in botany.
But I will not blatantly stress my plants just to make it bloom. And yet...I have many plants suddenly bloomed for me maybe because of the early snowstorm that just happened in the east coast (altho all my orchids were indoors they can sense the sudden turbulence outside due to barometric and low pressures)
I have several oncidiums and I have no problems having blooms from them: I use seaweed mix fertilizer weekly and I follow the culture of the plant and I have established a watering regimen.
I am a windowsill grower.
Your oncidium is sulking...I dont know how to make it happy and healthy once again...its up to you and your gut instincts.

Yes, I am all for the natural stress for the plants. Now that you say that thing about orchids sensing turbulences, I do remember that it was on news in my country that wild animals went into heat few months earlier than expected because of weather. All in all it was a dry year but not extremely hot like the one before, I never thought weather outside can affect the plants growing inside (except with the amount of light of course). I guess I will have to pay more attention to weather changes.

[Gage]

Originally Posted by opal

Very interesting, but there is no way I would remove a healthy leaf from an orchid. Even with dying ones I leave it to the plant to collect all nutrients from it before removing. Right now, the newest bulbs are on top of all others, and they should get the light they need.

I'm with you, thinning out a plant would be beyond a last resort for me. I was more suggesting the divide and rearrange method as a possibility. But like you said, if the new growths are climbing their way above the crowd, they should be getting all the light available to them.

[tarev]

Hi Opal, I was just reading through the entire thread. I also have a similar Oncidium noid. It gave me blooms twice in 2009 (in April and again in October of the same year). After that it never bloomed, but it is still alive, has grown more pseudobulbs and leaves, and unfortunately I am having problems with its humidity requirements too due to growth of crinkled leaves. But so far it is still alive, and to me better that it is alive than totally dead..hoping it will come around again whenever it wants. I do feed it weakly weekly at times. I have some problems about where to put it because I have no more space near our sink. I remembered it bloomed when it was nearer our sink. Right now it is being grown in bark, west facing window. So hoping I can correct some things it needs..maybe attempt a repot by Spring, and hope for the best. I have added some sphagnum moss hoping to correct some water retention needs, it keeps sending out lots of roots, so I know the roots are okay. Sharing here some pictures when it bloomed first in April then in October and last photo will be her current appearance.

[opal]

High time I post a picture of it as well. I didn't water it for 2 weeks, thus wrinkled lower bulbs, and potting media is so tightly packed I could never re-pot it properly. I'll add the picture of roots that I saw when I bought it 3 years ago, you'll see what I mean.

[Arenalbotanicalgarden]

It looks to me that the roots are trying their damnest to escape the lack of ventilation and the constraints of being in a pot. Agreed ?

[opal]

The roots have no space to grow into the medium. I can't even see it from roots and on top there are bulbs. There is nowhere else to grow really.

[opal]

GUess a plant's way of telling me: dream on, lol. There's the new growth trying to push through the bundle of roots, again, getting lowest light, again probably not flowering for me. (as new growth is supposed to start October for it to flower the next summer for me) I have no idea what to think of the plant that produces bunch of bulbs....