Hi Slide,
I'm probably not the best person to give advice, as I hardly ever fertilize...
But, to answer your question, I do withhold some water and I usually don't fertilize in the winter. although this year I totally forgot to move it to my dry area and it has been getting regular water and has a spike started on it! So, go figure...
Dorothy the name Bulbophyllum maximum did not mean a thing to me until I went to the website that you referred us to. Straight away the picture rang bells in my clouding up memory. This used to have another name but cannot remeber what it was (?Bulbophyllum platyrachis - will have to get out my book by Williamson on Orchids of South Central Africa i.e. Zambia to checK). It belongs to the section Megaclinium as does Bulbophyllum falcatum. We have 2 indigenous members of this section (sandersonii and scaberulum). I have this species but not sure under what name. I think mine (never flowered it yet because I was growing it too dark) has a green rachis rather than the red rachis in the picture on the websire.
Dorothy the name Bulbophyllum maximum did not mean a thing to me until I went to the website that you referred us to. Straight away the picture rang bells in my clouding up memory. This used to have another name but cannot remeber what it was (?Bulbophyllum platyrachis - will have to get out my book by Williamson on Orchids of South Central Africa i.e. Zambia to checK). It belongs to the section Megaclinium as does Bulbophyllum falcatum. We have 2 indigenous members of this section (sandersonii and scaberulum). I have this species but not sure under what name. I think mine (never flowered it yet because I was growing it too dark) has a green rachis rather than the red rachis in the picture on the websire.
Dorothy before logging off for the night I checked my Vermeulen (Orchid Monographs Volum 2 : A taxonomic revision of the continental African Bulbophyllinae) and I have mine growing under the name Bulbophyllum oxypterum. Together with platyrachis they are synonyms for Bulbophyllum maximum. Hope that this helps.