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Thread: Trouble with Doritonaeopsis

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
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    NYC
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    896

    Default Trouble with Doritonaeopsis

    I got this one in the April Orchid show At Rockefellar Center, NYC. It has lost all its blooms and the spike has been turning yellow from the apex towards the base. Right now it is yellow up to the first bloom. Now that doesnt make sence to me. Why would the oldest bloom be the last to die??
    The plant is in Sphag. moss and recently has been getting alot of morning sunshine. My east window get more and more sun as we get closer to June 21/22. Could too much sun be killin it? Or could it be rotting??
    Here is a pic of it when I first got it.
    [IMG]http://www.********************************/community/gallery/data/512/medium/Doritonaeopsis_Luchia_Roseherz_x_Dtps_Sogo_Toshiba .JPG[/IMG]

  2. #2
    My Grow Area
    Windowsill
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    Catts and Paphs
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    Surprise, AZ
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    WAS the oldest bloom the last to die, or is it that the spike has lost all the flowers and is yellowing from the tip? Once blooms drop most spikes do die back from the tip. If you want to try for a rebloom, cut the stalk now immediately above the first (highest) node that did not have a blossom.

    It may work, it may not. I was fully open when you got it? Could be it just wasn't happy with the change and decided to 'sulk' for a while. Leaves look okay?

  3. #3
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    Default

    Yes the leaves look good, though the youngest leaf looks a little red. The newest blooms started shriveling and then I noticed the spike yellowing from the tip. I cut off above the node without a bloom and the yellowing stopped. I put some vaseline on the cut I made with a sterile scaple blade, is that ok??
    Thanks for replying!!

  4. #4
    My Grow Area
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    Red color in the leaves is common in plants with red/purple blooms. You did fine. Now wait. It may sprout a side spike, or the whole spike may die back. What is important is to keep the plant healthy.

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    NYC
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    Default

    The rest of the spike still looks healthy. However, I came home from work yesterday to find that someone had decided that it would be a good thing to water the orchid so much that it would be swimming in the water dish with water covering its drainage holes.
    I don't know how many hours it was like that, but I drained as much water as I could. Hope its not a big deal.

  6. #6
    My Grow Area
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    I would definitely slap someones hands! If the media is soaked, I would consider unpotting, let it dry off a little and repot in fresh, moist media.

  7. #7
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    Default

    Thanks, will do.

  8. #8
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    Default

    Sounds like the new buds and blooms blasted, Tindo, for whatever reason. Older flowers don't respond to environmental changes as readily as buds and recent blooms seem to.

    I wouldn't think too much water for a matter of hours will do much harm. You should be fine. But if you haven't had a chance to peek at the roots, you might want to repot it anyway, just to make sure they're happy.

    Julie

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
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    NYC
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    I just realized this, but, we had a family member visiting us for two and half weeks, who slept in the living room. The orchid at the time was on the center coffee table which had to be moved every night to open the sofa-bed. When this happened, the orchid recieved all the brilliance of the morning sun from 6:30Am or is sunrise 5:20 here in NYC now? to about 8.

    Since we are nearing the summer solstice, obviously the intensity and length of sunlight it got every morning only increased with the passing days. Could this have been the culprit? Where the conditions too variable. I know my cousin (the family member Im talking about) complained about the burning sun at 6 a.m. but was too lazy to close the shades. I wonder now. I have since moved the orchid back to the spot where it is pictured above. Here it never recieves direct rays, but is in the same room.
    Plus the spike has continued to turn yellow, though ever so slowly, from the top down. Should I just cut it all down? Its currently yellow below the node of the oldest bloom.

  10. #10
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    Whether to keep a spike with a couple of flowers left blooming, or to try and reinitiate buds by making the high cut, or just cutting it off and letting the plant get on with its life are all up to you. I try and balance asthetics (one last bloom at the end of a sprawling spike just isn't that attractive to me), plant health, and how long it was flowering (ie, plant fatigue.)

    Blasting isn't so much from conditions that the plant might not like, it's from a sudden change in conditions, so the early sun could have done it. That doesn't mean your guy might not enjoy higher light levs. But any sudden change will put the recent blooms at risk.

    Did you cousin smoke? Incomplete combustion gives of ethylene gas, which is a notorious source of petal and flower drop. (Fireplaces, cigarettes, space-heaters that run on fuel, etc. Oh yeah, ripening fruit also gives off ethelyne. Keep blooming plants far from these.)

    Julie

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