Psycopsis orchid care help needed (sorry for the long post)
I have been growing phals and oncidium type orchids on windowsill sucessfully for about 6 years now and about 3 years ago I thought I would try my luck at growing psycopsis orchids. The issue I am having is that I have had my psycopsis for 3 years now and I got it about a year from when it should have been flowering size. During that time it has attempted to put up 2 leaves both of which have died once they get full size. It has never flowered and 3 years out from when I got it the plant is still the same size with just 2 poor leaves. I thought maybe it was just to young and if I got an older one I would have more sucessess but with similar results. The new one was flowering size and had many leaves. I got it 4 months ago and it was set up in what appears to be a moss/dirt medium. In the past 2 or 3 weeks the new psycopsis has started losing leaves as well (3 so far). Clearly I am missing something rather integral to the care of this plant and would appriciate any input from growers. My current set up uses a mix of sphagnum moss (30%) and woodchips (70%). I have them under a growlight for about 6 hours a day and they get indirect shaded sunlight throughout the day due to the location of my window. My humidity fluctuates between 30% in the winter (I try for higher but it is hard) and 60-70% in the warmer months. Temperatures fluctuate between 65 degrees in the winter and 80 degrees in the summer. I water my psycopsis about once every 5 days depending on when the medium dries out. I place the plants under cool running tap water for 3-8 minutes depending on the time of year. I try to fertalize once every 2-3 months but to be fair this is pretty sporadic and I have never been great about fertalizing.
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