Fredclarkeara - After dark Black Pearl: watering or not?

[sbrofio]

Hi fellows!!
For my birthday I decided to make to myself "some" gifts..
Obviously orchid gifts

One of them is a Fdk After dark Black pearl.
The plant is pretty big, as you can see in the pics.
I read the care instruction in the vendor's site but I have a doubt.
The plant is yellowing (does this verb exist?) the leaves, so I suppose it's enetering in dormancy, but it's making a floreal stem.. so, here the doubt:

Keep watering (a bit less) until at least 2 flowers open or stop watering?

Thank you friends

Filippo

The stem ( ? )

[catasetum-ian]

what a spectacular birthday gift!!!
seems like you got a spike forming! however the degree of the yellowing of the leaves worries me a bit. what media is underneath those gravels? sphag moss?? can you see the condition of the roots since it is in a white plastic pot? if cannot i would carefully remove the plant out from the pot to check the roots, should not harm the development of the spike if done properly. if the roots are ok, then i would water the media when it is totally dry (assuming it is sphag moss down there).
if there is problematic roots down there, i guess you would need to do some trimming then
hope all the roots are ok and you would be having your belated birthday wish from the black pearl about 6-8 weeks later =)

[Halloamey]

Filippo are you located in Germany or Europe?? I got exactly the same plant as a Birthday gift on September the second, it is definitely the sister plant to yours, because the potting media is identical, perlite stone stuff. Mine is still green without any spike initiation. But the yellowing of leaves (yes it is a word ) is natural. These hybrids are deciduous, so what you see is antural aging and leaf shedding. No worries. As for the watering, you can withold the watering completely, I know a person who unpots his plants after they have shed their leaves and keeps them unpotted till they start with new growth. He mists the roots every 3-4 days and during the dry days. They flower pretty well like that. My plants on the other hand stay in their pots just with reduced watering.

My plant says Hi to yours

[catttan]

Good sound advice from both of them.

[catasetum-ian]

wow, your Fdk looks great Amey.

[cakedaddy]

Good advice above...@ Amey- the unpotting bit confuses me. Do the plants flower during the period out of the pot? I have a Clowesia myself and have read the unpotting bit many times.
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[Halloamey]

Jason the plants usually start spiking as the leaves are about to be shed just as you see above, so most of the times at my friends place they flower when they are out of pots just hanging bare root.

Good advice above...@ Amey- the unpotting bit confuses me. Do the plants flower during the period out of the pot? I have a Clowesia myself and have read the unpotting bit many times.
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[sbrofio]

Good morning guys!
Yes, I'm in Italy but the plant came from Germany. It's exactly like yours: sphagnum moss and perlite ( ?). Roots are good, I think the problem is that the plant stayed 10 days inside the postal box because the company that delivered in Italy made a huge mess booking the delivery to me.
Now I watered very well the plant and will keep with little watering until the leaves fall.
@Catasetum-ian: this is "one" of the birthday gift (s )

[Brutal_Dreamer]

I've had terrible luck with this type orchid. I get them to bloom a few times and then because I don't withhold water over their dormant period they eventually rot and die. I finally figured out what was going wrong. Now, if only I knew to un -pot them. That would have reminded me not to let them get water. Thanks for the information!

cheers,
BD

[catasetum-ian]

I've had terrible luck with this type orchid. I get them to bloom a few times and then because I don't withhold water over their dormant period they eventually rot and die. I finally figured out what was going wrong. Now, if only I knew to un -pot them. That would have reminded me not to let them get water. Thanks for the information!

cheers,
BD

unpotting them is optional Bruce, but watering them according to the leaves is a must. no leaves means minimal to no water!!! let them be until the bulb start to show some signs of shriveling, then i only water them once.