New Cyc. Wine Delight in active growth in winter—what to do?
 

Hi all, I am brand new to growing Catasetinae and after much reading ordered a Cyc. Wine Delight from a Hawaiian nursery. Much to my surprise when it arrived I found it is not entering its winter rest, rather it is in process of maturing a new growth. What do I do?? Should I avoid watering and sacrifice maturity on the new growth? Or should i water in light of the new growth and let it have a late rest? For reference I am in Arizona and now is about as winter as we get.

Penny- that's a really nice looking plant. I have several members of the tribe in my shade house here in the Florida Keys. Our winters are normally dry and seasonably warm but this past fall into January have been wet and relatively chilly. Only 1 of my plants has gone dormant so I actually, just a few days ago, pulled them out of the shade house and put them downstairs under the house so they won't get any more rain. Typically by now all would have lost their leaves.

I'm attaching an interesting write-up that you may find useful on the subject.

https://www.aos.org/AOS/media/Conten...ries-Ctsm5.pdf

I'd just water and fertilize as though it's summer. Those complex hybrids often have a very short rest. You might think about resting it sometime in mid-March.

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Thank you all! The article was interesting and confirms isurus79’s point that hybrids don’t always behave as one would expect!

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but I just got a Cyc Taiwan Gold from an orchid show with a fat bulb and full foliage even though it’s mid-February. @isurus79, should I also attempt a rest in mid-March? Does this mean hide it in a dark place and ignore/water if severely dehydrated until a new growth gets big enough to water? I’m an apartment grower in NJ and it’s very dry right now but the days are getting longer. I’m worried about throwing it off its seasonal pattern.

I think we'll need to see photos. Can you start a thread for this one? Also, never throw these in a dark place! They still need light for photoperiod cues.