Forcing dormancy vs not forcing dormancy
 

So recently, I’ve been discussing the topic of dormancy with a couple of different breeders growing in south FL and it struck me as odd that neither of them do anything to induce dormancy(not withholding water until all the leaves fall off)—it’s kind of been keeping me up at night considering I’d been drilling the dormancy preparations into my head since getting ahold of these things!

These folks are known and have bred awarded plants, so I cannot possibly discount their knowledge and experience, especially since we grow in such similar environments, but I just wanted your thoughts on this perceived dichotomy of dormancy-inducing growers and those that don’t! I understand that location plays a big part, but it’s getting cold outside!

Thanks in advance for your input! And edited to say if this is heresy, may it be moved to Advanced Discussion in the interest of the Catasetinae-growing public!

I think you could probably just let nature do the watering for you at this point and not add any extra water

Your mostly dry and warm winters are similar to their habitat.

What is your definition of "cold"? If nights are consistently below about 55 deg F, then Catasetinae do need to be brought inside and protected a bit. But I suspect that your definition of "cold" in south Florida is a little different than my definition of "cold" which is somewhere in the low 50's F, and most of the US will laugh at both of us as total wimps. Your climate really is close to what these plants experience in nature... I agree with the advice above that is "Let Nature do her thing." Most of the general advice that you see on the 'net applies in places where the climate is not a good match for what these plants need and so people have to do things to supply conditions that come close.

In general, when you see advice, ask "Why?" "Under what conditions?" and you will then be in a good position to apply what works for you and discard what doesn't.

Thanks for your input Stephen! I got SVO’s seasonal mailer a few days ago and it was talking about growers in FL having dormant plants and I was scratching my head because I’m still seeing a rather significant(albeit ratty-lookin)number of leaves—I think I have like 2 plants that are bare! I’ll make it to the moon even if I have to crawl!

---------- Post added at 10:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:47 AM ----------

There’s always the possibility that I am massively overthinking this—I might just end up treating the SVO seedlings the way Fred does and treating the plants I got in FL the way their respective growers do.

Thanks for dropping by, ES!

---------- Post added at 11:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 AM ----------

I’m a warm/hot loving species myself(I’ve never seen snow/lifelong south FL resident)so 50F is my definition of cold—we had a front roll in recently, so air was 48F at dawn, but it’s 74F now at 11:30AM and may touch the mid 80’sF with relative humidity ranging between ~40% and ~80% day/night respectively, but we’ll be back to 85/65 day/night temps and higher daytime humidity by Thursday. I really think I’m just going to split the difference and try both methods with the plants I got from their respective growers to see which works better in my environment—the worst thing that could happen is I would actually have a concrete reason to buy more orchids instead of justifying insignificant ones! My curiosity will be satisfied as well, and hopefully curiosity won’t kill the Catasetinae!

To be honest, I’m kind of starstruck when conversing with breeders so I’m hyper aware of myself and I will never ask why’s or how’s for fear of coming across as ignorant or “questioning authority” and that isn’t based in any reality, but it’s just who I am!

Thanks for taking the time to contribute, Roberta!

Don't ever be shy about asking "Why"... it helps to pick out what applies to your situation. Some advice is flat wrong, but in more cases, it just doesn't address the particulars of different environments. Even Fred Clarke's newsletter is a bit general - impossible to fully address all the different environments that people have in a few paragraphs. It's the concepts that are important. As you learn about orchid habitats you start to see how your situation is same or different and can make adjustments accordingly. If you know where you're trying to get, then you can evaluate the advice with whether it helps you get there. No firm rules, rather ranges of what works.

Many cool growing plants tolerate quite hot days if the following nights are cool. Many warm growing plants tolerate cool nights if the following days are warm. Problems arise when it's regularly too hot or too cold for a plant.

I grow in a pretty constantly warm space and I'm finding the plants don't seem to get the strong dormancy signal. The few virused catasetums I grow outdoors follow nature's signal since they get very pronounced seasonal changes.

For example, I have quite a few mature catasetum/catamodes waking up now. They had started growing early this spring, and then self-directed a dormany around October/November (I guess they just got sick of growing). Now waking up. I guess I'll see if they want to grow 'out of season' and start heavy fertilizer soon...