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Flower emerging?

I recently divided some orchids, and shortly after, I noticed a new growth on the largest division. Is it a flower, or just a new psuedobulb?

Here is the new growth:
orchid1.jpg


And the plant that the other plants were divided from:
orchid2.jpg


All the plants:
orchid3.jpg


I've never paid much attention to how new plants are formed, so that's why I'm not sure what this new growth is.

Many thanks,
-Ben
 
Ben,
That looks like new vegatative growth. After it matures, it should flower.

Good growing,
KPG
 
So, is the vegetative growth going to become another psuedobulb? Or is that a special type of growth that is only made to make flowers? Sorry, I'm not much of an expert with "orchid terms".
smile_l_32.gif


-Ben
 
Yes, it should form leaves and a new pseudobulb and eventually flower.  Looks like you're doing a good job, by the way.  Have fun and good growing, KPG
 
Thanks, this is the first time I actually put any work into growing orchids. Does this type of orchid like growing by an east window (as it is now)? It used to just sit by a west window, and only got a little but of light during the late afternoon, while they now get several hours of light in the morning, and bright shade the rest of the day.

-Ben
 
More light is better - medium to light green leaves.  Too little light=dark green, floppy leaves.  Too much light=leaf burn.
 
Ok, I guess my plants are getting enough light then. It's just that they have never flowered before, and I've had them for 3 years. Only now am I giving them fertilizer though, every other watering.

-Ben
 
I just have one more question: Are my plants catteleyas or spider orchids?

Many thanks,
-Ben
 
Ben. Your plants look like opncidium alliance type orchids. They could be spider orchids, but then again they may not be. Unless they have a lable, the oncidums look alot like brassia and the hybreds look similar too. They definatly are not cattleyas. Its also going to be iffy if they flower from your window. Not impossible mind you. I don't knwo the light coming through there all day. It may be just the camera or the time of day, but it doesn't look like they are getting enough light from your picture. Do you have a place outside you could put them? If the temps are above 60 they can be outside. I agree with KPG that too much light can cause leave burn, but thats to an extent. It is not the light that burns the plants its the leaf temps from being unprotected. In my GH I grow with ALOT more light than alot of people, but I have MASIVE air circulation going on and that helps keep leaf temps down to minimize leaf burn. I still get some on some plants, but thats acceptable to me. Things flower well.
I bought a NoID Oncid from lowes that I grew ourside with my Catts only under a piece of latus and it flowered realy well after not flowering for a couple years from lack of light. I have another NoID from lowes that is a lavender spider orchid hybred. I had it outside under latus too and it had 4 spikes last year too. Are you wanting a spider orchid?

I do agree with KPG that is a new growth. That is typicaly where ne growth emerges, but not allways. If it were a spike it would more than likely be growing inbetween the Pbuld and first leaf on the side of the Pbulb. By the time you see a spike you will definatly know its a spike. I will try to take a picture of a spike from one of my oncid alliance plants so you can see.

I have been told by a veteran orchid grower that orchid color should have a slight yellow color to its leaves. Keep in mind this is not a "Rule", but its what he uses to get his plants to flower well. This vet in my OS grows some outstanding plants. If you say your plant has not flowered in 3 years I would venture to say that your plant is getting enough light to grow, but not enough to flower.

Just as a referance Cattleya type orchids flower well with about 3000 foot candles of light. Oncidium alliance anot not much less than that. I will have to look it up in one of my books and get back with you on that. Also keep in mind that the flowers you see this year are due to the culture and light given to it the year before. Kewp asking questions these are good and I am happy to share my experience and what little I know about orhids with people. Good luck!
 
  • #10
Thanks for all that info. Nope, I'm not really looking for a spider orchid, but yes, I would have some places for it outside, but it is very chilly out still, with nights into the low forties. The east facing window they're on will get bright direct light from around 8:00 am to about maybe 11:00 am or noon. Then bright shade the rest of the day. My southern windows are pretty much blocked by a grove of house-height pine trees and a huge silver maple, so the only windows I got are the west and the east, east has more light, I think. They are in either pure bark with charcoal and random bits of LFS or in Grower Ron's orchid mix, which is mostly bark, perlite, and a bit of peat moss. I water them once a week, fertilize every other with Epiphyte's Delight. I think in summer I can grow them on my balcony which gets direct sun in the morning, and then again in the late after noon, while during the middle of the day is shaded a bit by the silver maple. The leaves tend to be a dark green.

-Ben
 
  • #11
There is your problem. Not enough light. You said leaves are dark green. More light will intice them to flower. Personaly I wouldn't use the mix with peat in it, but thats me. Remember I alsway say that what works for one may not work for the other. So if your not getting root rot the go with it. Many folks have had success with peat in their mixxes. The balcony sounds good to me once your temps stay above 55 at night. I said 60 earlier because thats my safe, but 55 and the occasional 50 is ok. If you grew cymbiums then they can take down to the 30's, but to be safe with those types 55 to 60 is acceptable mins. Now when you move them to the balconly keep them close to the back wass and aclimate them slowly to the higher light or you will see signs of sunburn and things on the leaves because they are not used to it. You will notice the leaves yellowing up a little with more light. You may not see flowers on the newest growth, but then again you might. I hope you do. You will need to judge the plant as you increase the light to see if it needs more or less light. Dark green for that type of plant is not enough light. It needs to be green, but have a slight yellow tint to it. The yellow green should be on all the leaves and not just in slpotches. Splotches could mean something else. Since you said dirrect light from 8 till about 11 you will need to just watch the plant. You may need to put up some screen between the plants and the sun, but I doubt it. Just keep that in mind and let the plant tell you what it needs. Thats the important thing. Learn to read the plant.

Now after you move them outside you may find that they are drying out faster thats is good. My plants outside I water once a day, but they are in bright light too. Plus its hot outside. Orchids of that type will benefit from drying out between watering, and the faster you can get it to dry the faster you can water it and susiquently the faster it will grow. Of course there are some species that like to never dry out. Paphs, phrags, and masdis come to mind. But you are safe letting them dry out between watering.
Untill you get used to them growing outside, go down to the supermarket and get some bamboo scewer. The things you use for shiscabobo(sp). Basicly a long tooth pick. When you think its time to water stick that into the center of the pot and see if it comes out damp. If it does hold of watering till the next day and check again. If its dry then water again.

It sounds like you have the fertilizing down. AOS says weekly weakly. 1/4 strength once a week. I know its better to fertilize, but I'm bad about not doing it, and I do it about once a month if that at 1/4 to 1/2 strength and have acceptable results with my orchids.
 
  • #12
Once again, thanks for all the info. I just seperated my orchids around a month ago, so they might still be adjusting to their new window, and I think some of the leaves (under closer inspection) seem to be a bit lighter. I do use 1/4 strength, or at least they say 1/4 of a table spoon per gallon for weekly waterings. The mother plant obviously has a huge root ball, since it had been in the same pot for 3 years, and the divisions don't have such a large ball, so they tend to dry out much quicker than the mother plant, and their Pbulbs tend to be a little more shrively, though not too bad. Oh, and I forgot, does this type tend to flower easily? I also have a Dendrobium, which I think is Dendrobium 'Zeschia Lynn'. Would that one do ok on the east window and flower?

Thanks,
-Ben
 
  • #13
Dens can take pretty high light. I have mine out with my Cattleyas. When you devided how many Pbulbs did you make minimun? Should always consider 3 atleast I like to do 4. 2 or 3 old and one new. Any maller and you set the plant back to much. They can flower easy if given enough light. Then again being a hybred they may flower with less. I know I had a couple to not flower because I babied them and didn't give them wnough light, but the folowing year they bloomed nicely. Thats also a problem I had with my first purchased Cattleya was I never gave it enough light so after 2 years of not blooming I stuck it out where I keep my Catts now and it bloomed with 10 Large flowers on 4 Pbulbs. If you have trouble flowering an orchids the culpret alot of times is your light. Once I got things acustomed to the GH things started bloming all over the place because my GH is pretty bright, and things just grow better. I had a terible time blooming things when I grew in the house. I was only able to get a few things to rebloom. My Gongora, colminara wildcat, and maybe a few others are the only things I was able to bloom regularly growing outside during the summer and inside during the winter. I was growing under a sweetgum tree that didn't let enough light filter thoguh for the babied during the summer. You may want to supliment them with a couple of florecent tubes if they are stuborn to flower. Catts can be bloomed when kept close to 4 tubes for a long photo period so I;m sure Oncids can too.
 
  • #14
I gave each plant 3 Pbulbs, except for one, which had two. And every division (as well as the mother plant) is making new growth-as in little buds. So, I'll just keep fertilizing every time I water (once a week) and hopefully I'll see some flowers. In May I might bring them outside, but are you sure that they can handle direct sun all day long?

-Ben
 
  • #15
No Ben not dirrect sun all day long.  I have mine outside on a bench with a piece of latus between the plants and the sun.  Plus there are other plants hanging from the latus that gives extra shade.  I will get the foot candle measurement for that type of orchid when I get home and can look in one of my books.  I think its atleast 2000 foot candles though.  I would say mine are getting  between 3000 and 4000 easy, but I haven't checked that yet.  Full sun here in GA during the summer is between 6k to 8K foot candles.  So from what I gathered earlier you said you had a balcony that got morning sun, but started to get shaded around 11 to noon right?  You want to protect almost any orchid between 1130 till about 3 or 4o from full blown dirrect sun unless its a vanda or others species that likes that.  Oncids like high light to flower, but by no means is it full sun all day. You need more light, but without knowing the exact conditions I can't say your balcony will be fine or not.  From the sounds of it though your balcony sounds perfect.  I would venture to say 50% shade would be great.  Thats about what I am growing under during midday on my bench.  Assuming the latus blocks 50% sun and then the plants hanging from the latus also adds shade, BUT during the morning time and late evening the sun is coming in at an angle so the hanging plants are not much protection.  I will take a picture of it now since It is filling up, and you can see how I grew mine last year.  At the moment I don't have my oncids outside because I was moving the Catts out first and its filling up fast, but my GH has pretty high light too.  Its just two layers of drop plastic and 50% shade cloth.  I will take a light reading in the GH tomorrow too.  I have to make another bench this year for the rest of the plants.  I have to get all of the plants out the GH so I can remodle it.

I know for a fact your plants need more light, but I would hate to recomend someplace that sounds good from the descriptions, and it be too hot and burns the plants up.  Remember if you move them to higher light your going to need to water more than once a week, or you will shrivel your plants up faster than you can blink.  I water about every other day, and if its a hot day I water every day.  I know some people who water twice a day.  So you need to remember that as well.  Also since you have more than one plant now you are able to experiment a little too.  I duno if you remember me saying this before or if you read it, but ANY orchid advice should be taken as guidlines and never the gospel.  What works for me may not work for you, and you could live right next door.  Since you have multiple plants you can leave one inside in the brightest window.  Place one in slightly higher light outside, and another in more light and so forth then watch the plants.  See how each is doing, and then you will get a beter idea of what the plant is looking for.  Remember the plant will grow in less light, but it will more than likely not flower.  The plant that you water more will grow faster, but remember the plant needs to dry out faster in order to water more.  The increased light increases transporation.  The increased transporation increases water need thats what helps dryout the pot faster.  Just some things to help out.  If I was you I would do the experimentation aspect.  You would not believe the ammount of orchids I have killed before I started grasping the art of reading what the plants need, but its the best way to learn, and since I would venture to say that this plant is not an expencive awarded plant (I'm assuming its a NoID) if it were to kick the bucket. It wouldn't be a total loss since you have enough to keep one inside where you know its growing, but not flowering.
 
  • #16
Ok, now I got everything straight. I decided to put one of my unknown Dendrobiums into my terrarium. It has 82 watts of light, temp is around 75-80 in the day, 70 at night, humidity is at anywhere from 40%-60% in the day, 70%-75% at night. There is a 15 hour photoperiod. I hope this one will flower.

-Ben
 
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