r/orchids • u/Silly_Keiki • 15h ago
Help Flowers growing wrong
This year most of my flowers are... growing wrong (small, malformed, weak, sometimes aborting). I have no idea of what could be the cause of the problem (fertiliser going bad? Temperatures too high?). Does anyone have any suggestion of what could be happening? The pseudobulbs are otherwise fine, but the flowers...
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u/1_BigDuckEnergy 14h ago
I have had similar experience when humidity was to low..... but not with these specific crosses.
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u/Silly_Keiki 13h ago
Humidity is around 60%-70%, they have bloomed normally in previous years with those same parameters.
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u/1_BigDuckEnergy 13h ago
OK - that is all I got - LOL
I grow a few catasetums and the vex me differently every year....assuming they come back at all!
Good luck
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u/argonator1933 14h ago
Have they previously bloomed normally? What's the name of the plants in question?
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u/Silly_Keiki 14h ago
Yes, they have bloomed normally in previous years. They are: Catasetum sanguineum, Catasetum Green Dragon, Monnierara Millenium Magic, Cycnoches lehmannii and a mislabeled Catasetum hybrid.
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u/argonator1933 12h ago
What are the light levels they are receiving and how frequently are you fertilizing? Usually weak spikes and growth have to do with nutrition and energy.
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u/Silly_Keiki 9h ago
Big LED panels, have never been an issue in previous years. Fertiliser is always available (self watering pots, the deposit is filled with water + fertiliser at all times during growing season (dry when dormant)). I use Rain Mix.
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u/PiCH1RiLo 12h ago
My guess, without being an orchid expert, is that it must have something to do with the fertilizer, maybe it went bad and is deficient, or maybe the pH wasn't adequate and the plant couldn't absorb it correctly. (?) It just looks like there was a deficit of nutrients needed for flowering.
I would've guessed humidity too but that has been taken care of. My third guess is an illness of some sort, like someone else suggested.
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u/Silly_Keiki 9h ago
I am betting on the fertiliser going bad. It is impossible the same illness has affected several plants at the same time. I don't have pests inside home and they don't share water.
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u/tagshell 14h ago
Catasetums are monoecious, meaning they can produce either male or female flowers, different than almost all other orchids which produce only one flower type (male + female).
I'm not a catasetum expert but a few of the spikes here look like they are female flowers, which are usually green and shaped very different than the male flowers.
Pic #4 is the clearest, the largest flower bud clearly looks like images of catasetum female flowers.
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u/Silly_Keiki 13h ago
Trust me, I am well versed in Catasetinae too. Those are not female flowers.
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u/tagshell 13h ago edited 13h ago
Doesn't the lowest bud in pic #4 look exactly like one though? It's all green and has the hood structure.
The yellow shriveling / deformity stuff going on looks weird though for sure.
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u/Silly_Keiki 9h ago
They are all green when they start growing. As they grow they fill up with pigments. It is too small and deformed to be a hood.
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u/TelomereTelemetry 13h ago
I don't know the cause, but I've seen pictures of it before (unfortunately, the only explanation anyone ever has for it is "...weird hormonal thing?"). In at least one case, the person who had a phalaenopsis doing this came back and said it bloomed normally the next time around.
For temperature-influenced bloomers I'd suspect it as a factor, since that governs their hormone levels, but for ones that aren't, 🤷
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u/SouthPark_Piano 11h ago edited 11h ago
Specify growing conditions.
Lighting level, duration etc.
And the leca ball 'method' ... probably need to make sure the water is doing what we need it to do within that medium.
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u/dachshundslave 10h ago
How warm does it get? When high temp and high humidity combines it could affect the resting period as they usually rest during cooler nights, hence the buds could grow wonky. Did you stop feeding when the spike is growing? I don't stop until they're rested and still hydrate every now and then as my grow area is not very high humidity <70%.
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u/Silly_Keiki 9h ago
During the worst of summer temperatures can go up to 32 degrees, and they don't lower much at night. I don't stop feeding until the days start to go colder and show signs to be slowing down.
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u/dachshundslave 43m ago
They can tolerate that temperature without issues as it's been reported they handle 38C in greenhouses fine in Florida. Have you given them something that introduce hormones during the spike development? Synthetic fertilizers don't really go bad unless unproperly stored or the diluted solution is contaminated. What was their growing conditions like this year? Fred Clarke from Sunset Valley Orchids might be able to assist you as he's an expert/breeder in Catasetinae [svorchids@outlook.com](mailto:svorchids@outlook.com) and do update us on it as it is very strange and interesting if nothing has changed.
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