Big vanda won’t bloom

[beeu23]

Hello everyone!
I have bought a big vanda chulee blue a bit more than a yr ago.
I have it under pretty good grow lights and the plant also has some big kekis now and doing overall very good. However it never bloomed for me , and I noticed between the leaves it has a lot of those small brownish nodes.
What are those? Any chance it will bloom from them eventually? I had just upped the light even more hoping something will finally happen

[estación seca]

It's certainly large enough. What are your ambient temperatures day/night? Relative humidity? How often do you water? How do you water? Are you fertilizing? What fertilizer and what concentration are you using, and how often? Can you send some closer photos of some leaves?

[beeu23]

I water 2 times a week by dunking it for around 4h hours each time. It always worked for my other vandas, and i use a 10:52:10 fertilizer i got that when i bought it said its for rooting and blooming for vandas. Humidity around 70%. I will try now to add some more photos, still figuring out how to

---------- Post added at 04:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:43 PM ----------

Ok i managed to add some leaves photos

[estación seca]

How do you dilute the fertilizer?

[beeu23]

I water all of them in the bathub, i put fertilizer till the water gets yellow, I don’t do any specific measurements to be honest, maybe that’s the issue?I do know once i put too much and it burned the tips of the roots, and i started to put less and it didn’t happen again

[estación seca]

Is the middle number (phosphorus) really 52? That is too high for orchids. I realize it was sold to you as orchid fertilizer, but that much phosphorus is not needed and is probably not helpful. Orchids don't need special orchid fertilizer. A common garden fertilizer with relatively similar number of the main nutrients, and trace minerals, is fine, like 10-10-10 or 20-20-20 or 13-3-15.

You need to measure fertilizer to make sure you're getting enough and not too much. If you don't measure it's like salting food while cooking but never tasting it.

Vandas need more fertilizer than other orchids so you need to mix different dilutions for different orchids.

People calculate the parts per million of nitrogen in water to calculate fertilizer dilutions. The concentration to use depends on the kind of plant and how often you apply fertilizer. Some people use low doses at every watering. Others use a higher dose weekly, and others a still higher dose monthly.

There is a fertilizer calculator at the First Ray's Web site firstrays.com . Look near the top for Free Information then Plant Nutrition then Measurement, Handling, & Application.

For Vandas, Martin Motes, an orchid nurseryman in Florida, recommends 1 US Tablespoon (15ml of powder) of 20-20-20 fertllizer per gallon (3.78) liters of water, applied at every fifth watering. That yields a nitrogen concentration of 750 parts per million. Using your fertilizer that would mean adding a volume of 6.9ml of fertilizer to 1 liter of water. Note that this is far too much for most other orchids.

I also think your plant may not be getting enough light. It is dark green in color. Most Vandas bloom best if they are very light green or even a little yellow from light intensity.

[beeu23]

I see thank you very much for the advice! I have brought up light intensity and will start to measure the fertilizer..indeed it seems a bit high the 52, that’s how it was sold to me

[Dusty Ol' Man]

Originally Posted by beeu23

I see thank you very much for the advice! I have brought up light intensity and will start to measure the fertilizer..indeed it seems a bit high the 52, that’s how it was sold to me

While you're at Ray's website, read this article.
"Bloom Booster" Fertilizers

[tucson0rchid87]

Judging by size and color of leaves -not enough light to bloom. Only enough for vegetative growth. Leaves should be the color of a Granny Smith apple.

[Fairorchids]

Do you bring it outside in summer?

Once night time temperature reaches 13C (55F), all Vandas can go outside, and stay there till cooler nights return in late summer/early fall.

You need to harden the plant in light shade for about a week. After that, it can go into full sun - provided that you can water it daily. I recommend a sprinkler set up to give 15 min twice a day, mid/late morning, and again around 1 or 2 PM (13-14:00).

Vandas bloom far better with the outdoor summer vacation. And, since this is a blue (= predominantly Vanda coerulea genetics), it can probably tolerate temperatures down to about 10C (= 50F).