What causes a Catt to Bloom? - Orchid Board

Gwenchanter · #1 01-23-2009, 11:23 AM

I've been growing Phals for a while and it's easy to get them to bloom: Make sure they have good roots, then in december when the temps go down at night I start seeing little spike nubbins.

Catts confuse me though. What triggers a Catt to bloom? I have four of them and none are blooming but lots of people brought in blooming Catts at our orchid society meeting. How come mine aren't blooming? Two of my BLC.'s had flowers in early December when I aquired them but they fell off and I guess they're resting. Will they bloom again when it gets warmer? more humid? more sunlight?

My third Catt., also a BLC. I've had since last June and it hasn't bloomed. I bought it at an orchid show and at the time it was not in bloom but they told me it was blooming size and should have it's first bloom soon. It seems pretty happy and even grew a new psudoblub but no flowers =(.

My last Catt is a Potinara which I acuired last winter. Over the summer it made two new psudobulbs but it's been a year now and still no flowers =(.

Please help!

Tindomul · #2 01-23-2009, 02:24 PM

When I have a prob blooming a Catt, I give it more light. Yes more light!

More fertilizer too. And also my problems with them often is getting them to root. After that, you should get them to bloom sometime in the year. Some I imagine do go by shortening days or lengthening days, changes in temps too are important. But what each one responds to seems to be different from the others.

isurus79 · #3 01-23-2009, 03:44 PM

Tindo is right on with increasing the light. I would also water them less when not actively growing (no fert during this time) and subjecting them to the same cold weather that you give your Phals will probably help create seasonal fluctuations of chemicals within the plant which may help trigger flowering down the road. When all else fails, I basically stop watering them for a few months. Let the bulbs shrivel up a lot (but not unhealthily so) and rarely do they not bloom!

Lagoon · #4 01-23-2009, 04:29 PM

For me its been maturity and strong lighting for them to bloom.

BikerDoc5968 · #5 01-23-2009, 04:44 PM

I had a real problem with my catts also....early in the year (August) I was getting lots of empty sheaths. Someone on the board suggested, more light, change the food and consider timing..... timing is everything. Sometimes they get ahead of themselves and put out empty sheaths.... Over the past 2 months I've had several bloom. So more light, food and just be patient!

Tommyr · #6 01-25-2009, 01:09 PM

With any blooming plant it's either lack of enough light, fertilizer or both. If you are feeding regularly increase the light level.

Gwenchanter · #7 01-29-2009, 08:11 PM

Thanks very much for all of your responces! I learned a lot! I think they are getting enough light. They are on the edge of my patio and face southwest. They get bright sun all day except around noon when it's directly overhead. They are a bright grassy-green color and the newest leaves that are still growing have a little purple around the edges.

I think the problem might be that I'm not feeding them often enough. I am always worried about them being too wet and with the humidity here sometimes the bark stays moist for two or three weeks. Therefore, I can't water them with fertilizer every week like I do with my phals. Maybe I should either just water them every week and see what happens or try and get some kind of slow release pellet fertilzer to throw on top?

Gwenchanter · #8 01-29-2009, 08:14 PM

Thanks very much for all of your responces! I learned a lot! I think they are getting enough light. They are on the edge of my patio and face southwest. They get bright sun all day except around noon when it's directly overhead. They are a bright grassy-green color and the newest leaves that are still growing have a little purple around the edges.

I think the problem might be that I'm not feeding them often enough. I am always worried about them being too wet and with the humidity here sometimes the bark stays moist for two or three weeks. Therefore, I can't water them with fertilizer every week like I do with my phals. Maybe I should either just water them every week and see what happens or try and get some kind of slow release pellet fertilzer to throw on top?

Heres a pic:
The one in the little clay pot is the potinara and the other two are BLC's.

irrka · #9 01-29-2009, 09:04 PM

You can always move them to more open pots with lots of side holes--that'll make them dry out if nothing else will

I haven't been able to get mine to bloom either, but i'm way north of you, so i'm going to go ahead and blame the light. I've just started turning on the lamp with a bunch of CFCs when it gets darker to get them a longer day, but we'll see if they do anything different. So far they've been doing nothing but making new pseudobulbs (at least those look healthy!)

failingflopsis · #10 02-14-2009, 11:00 PM

I'm not sure from the picture what kind of potting material you are using. Since your catts stay moist for weeks you might try repotting them in clay pots and/or using large bark for the potting material that will drain and dry out quicker. A third option is to mount them. I find that my mounted plants dry out very quickly.