I just bought a Brassia Haleahi spider at a nursery, that was in bud. I am keeping them at a humidity of about 40-50% and a temperature of 90F in the daytime and about 1500footcandles away from the light source. And during the night, the temperatuire drops to about 70F... They seem to all be blooming right about now... My question was.... What do I do after they have all bloomed?? Do i keep feeding it with fertilizer (the equal proportions N/P/K fertilizer) and keep it at the same temperature differences b/w night and day? Do I need to bring it closer to the light for inducing a flower spike? What else can I do to make it bloom again?
Here is the Orchid Lady's info. Beware: Lots of ads! http://orchidlady.com/pages/orchidGarden/Brassia.html
Thanks for that info!! So, it's about 2 weeks since my brassia's been in bloom... I keep the humidity around 40%, and the temp 85F (68F at night), with 12hrs of HID lights.... The're starting to dry and shrivel up?! It's only been two weeks! It's starting from the oldest blooms. Anything I can do to try and keep them from aging so fast?? Do u think the strong light (even though it's still 1500-2000FC away, measured) affect the longevity of the blooms? Help?!
I grow at least 150 of this type of oncidium orchid. Our plants are housed in a tropical atrium with a minimum temp of 55 degrees F in the winter but during the summer all or most are moved outdoors. The temp can easily be in the high 90's. When out in the yard they live under a single layer of wire screen door wire. The sunlight is relatively bright but still diffused and that approximates nature. We fertilize weekly with about a 20% mixture. The orchids bloom all summer long. Some will produce multiple spikes during the summer. They are watered daily, often twice a day. We do this because I used to be fortunate enough to spend time in rain forests where orchids were common. The relatively humidity was always near 100% and the orchids were in constant bloom. In the forest they receive little fertilizer other than the dissolved soils that mix with rain water. But you should see the morning sun and the afternoon rain! Sometimes the mud is so thick you can't walk! But the orchids thrive and love the conditions. And by the way, they grow attached to the sides of trees, not in any kind of pot packed with bark. Their roots simply dangle and soak up the rain. We've managed to duplicate the same thing many times inside our atrium with those orchids we've attached to logs. I fear the majority of us attempt to try to force our orchids to live under our preferred conditions rather than under the conditions they enjoy. Everyone has to make up their own minds, but the growers in Florida who use overhead watering systems that spray the orchids with a fine mist up to 5 times a day always have wonderful blooms. You should check out the world famous RF Orchids north of Homestead, FL. Thousands of blooming orchids all the time and they give lots of water and fertilizer but always in a dilute form. And all they are trying to do is duplicate nature. Here's the link to what I learned from about 5 large growers when we lived in Florida. Mine do so well now we actually have orchids growing epiphytically on an artificial log close to 3 meters above our walkway inside the atrium. All they have between themselves and the sun is a single layer of Lexan. But the misting system is directly over their heads and they stay wet! http://www.exoticrainforest.com/caringforyourorchids.html http://www.exoticrainforest.com/misting orchids.html
