Difficulty getting my orchids to spike
 

About a year ago I bought some beautiful orchids from a reputable online dealer. I bought a few different Phals, a Cattleya and a Vanda. I bought them at blooming size and I keep them indoors (I live in Chicago). I provide them with ample artificial light. And water them only when their mix is dry about an inch down. And I keep them over a humidity tray. Also, I have been putting them in a cooler spot at night (I've heard that they like that in order to start blooming). Its been a while and all I've seen is new leaf growth, no spikes! What am I doing wrong?

What do you call "ample" artificial light? Cattleya and Vanda orchids need MUCH more light than Phalaenopsis orchids. Only the phal needs a cooling off period in order to stimulate a spike this time of year.

When orchids won't rebloom it's usually due to a couple of culture issues. Inadequate nutrition, and inadequate light. If either or both of those two are deficient your plants probably won't bloom. Vandas in particular are heavy feeders, and can take full sun if you can provide it. I doubt seriously if Vandas will bloom under regular grow lights unless it's one of those mega output HID lights.

So what kind of lights are you growing under, and how often, how much, what kind of fertilizer are you using?

Adding to Terri's "big two", don't forget that too much nitrogen can also stall or prevent blooming.

I have my orchids under a 100W florescent 5000K light. I use a light meter and my Cattleya and Vanda are getting about +2000 fc of light. I am keeping my phals a bit further away from the light source, so they get around 1000 fc. When we get sunny weather, I put my high light orchids in a south facing window. They get plenty of light there. Could I be giving them light for too long? I have them under the lamp for about 14hrs a day.

As far as fertilizer goes, I have been using Schultz Orchid Food. Is there a better brand?

Thanks!

Then, the only thing I would change is try cooling them down at night. Only a few degrees may help.

The vanda can take brighter light than that.

When say you use Schultz, but you don't say how much or how often. It matters.

Just becos' a vendor tells you they are blooming size always mean they are ;)
If they truly are bloom size, then I would opt for more light.
I would flush out the orchids for the next few times and try epsom salts instead of your regular ferts - 1 teaspoon per 1 gallon, every 2nd watering for the next couple of weeks. Oh and more light :biggrin:

Just my nickle :)

I was going to write exactly what mayres wrote, so......ditto!

P.S. Hi ya mayres! Nice seeing you here.;)

I have been giving 1/4 tsp fertilizer per gallon. I only fertilize every other week. The schultz stuff says to only use 1/4 tsp per gallon. Should I use more? Should I fertilize more often.

As far as light goes, does more hours of artificial light help? Or should I just put them in a very sunny window for the short days we have this time of year?

Thanks for all your advice. I have never done this before and you all are a great help:biggrin:

I also have this phalaenopsis NOID hybrid, it's grown so big with a keiki and it hasn't flowered since the last time I got it (a year ago). The plant's grown so big it's already slanted!

Basteh, based on 19N-31P-17K of Schultz Orchid food, at 1/4 teaspoon you are only getting 63ppm N. Ray suggests we be shooting for around 125ppm N. In order to reach that you'd have to bump up your dose to 1/2 tsp/gal water to reach 125ppm. The P seems high to me but I'll let Ray address that as I don't know how that will affect plants if at all. Here's a link from Ray's website with a ppm calculator. It's very coolio and I use it all the time.

Fertilizer PPM Calculator

All that said, I have used DynaGro Grow with good results, and am nearly through my first bottle of GreenCare MSU. I'm seeing much more robust growth with the MSU, so I'm switching to that permanently. One caveate though, I put up T5 lights to suppliment the light from my window at about the same time I started using MSU. I'm not sure if I can attribute the more robust growth to the MSU alone or if it's that in combination with the higher light levels.

One last thing. I would recommend feeding on a weekly basis rather than every other week. Vandaceous plants in particular are heavy feeders. If you have a sunny window I'd ease them into it. They can take as much light as you can throw at them. Just don't do it all at once.

Hope all this helps! Good luck and keep us posted. :biggrin:

still sounds like you are not giving your orchids enough light. What you may call ample..may very well not be enough. I recommend a grow light with a red-blue spectrum. Vandas require more light so the vanda has to be closer to the light as the others. I can look in the American Orchid Society magazines to recommend a special spectrum lighting that is not too expensive.

The extra phosphorus is not a problem. Your plants won't use it and it will seep into the ground.

Ok. I will add a bit more fert and apply it every week.

In terms of light, I have read that the color of light is important, but the light intensity is even more important. So, if I am giving my plants 2000fc of 5000K (lots of blue light), they might not be getting enough of the red end of the spectrum?

I envy those of you in the south! Growing orchids in Chicago is difficult! But I am determined!