Cattleya not blooming and with a black patch on a leaf

[arijitp83]

My Cattleya has suddenly developed this black region. Due to a pre-monsoon depression it was raining for days and the plant was outside. It started as a black spot. Now I have brought the plant inside. Should I cut off that leaf? I have already applied fungicide and it is only that leaf -- its a new growth, the other leaf is still growing.

The plant was doing quite well outside in the sun and as you can see in the pictures there are many new growths. Its been only growing since I bought the plant in 2008 and did not flower yet- I do not know why!

Can anyone help me and throw some light on the above issues.

[silken]

I wouldn't be too worried about that black spot. You could cut the leaf tip off to healthy tissue and tab the cut end with cinnamon.

Do you have a name for your Cattleya?

Quite often the reason they don't bloom is not enough sun. Your leaves are not real dark green, but they could likely use some more sun. How much sun and what kind of fertilizer do you use? If you do begin giving it more sunlight, do it slowly so that it can adapt and not get burnt.

[arijitp83]

This is the only image of the flower I have, I took it when I bought the plant in 2008.

Can you tell me the type if you know?

I have kept the orchid plant under a net so that it gets filtered sunlight. Direct sunlight burn the leaves I have seen, as in India the summer sun is very strong.. My Dendrobiums are doing excellent under the net.
Every 15 days I feed the plant with 20:20:20.

[silken]

Well, it is obviously blooming size! There are so many hybrids that it would be impossible to name it if it doesn't have a tag. At least it doesn't look like any species I am familiar with.

The only thing I can think if it is getting plenty of sun is that it is maybe getting too much nitrogen fertilizer and just producing growth. Or this possibly needs more of a diurnal range than you are providing to make it bloom. Try some bloom booster when the new growths are produced.

Maybe someone else will have some thoughts on this one.

[RJSquirrel]

your many new growths arent mature. there is no bulbs. notice the big bulb in the picture of the blooming. take it back outside and just cut the leaf tip off with a clean or sterile razor. discard the razor. But,looks like salt build up burn to me. Give the media and plant a few good flushes when you water next time and back off the feeding. Water it fully and let it flood. Just what Im thinkin. The plant is healthy enough to grow very fast in the sun and it will need big drinks of clean water.