Orchid bloomers

[Willc73]

Hello,
Very new to orchids. I have what I think is a good place to grow them. It is a enclosed porch with a acrylic 50% screen on top. It is not completely enclosed.
I have several orchids in there along with a bunch of different bromeliads.
My issue is that I have had these orchids for 2 years and they only bloomed when I bought them, and haven't bloomed since. I did have one exception, one of them did bloom for about a week this year.
They all look alive and many of them have some new growth. I feed them once a month. I water them depending on the weather. Lately it has been in the 90's and I water them almost every day.
I live in southern california.
Thanks
Bill

[mayres]

In very general terms, not knowing what kind of orchids you have, if they are not blooming they probably need MORE light. Are you fertilizing them regularly as well? Of course there are other considerations but these come to mind first on the list. If you share what kind of orchids you have, what they are planted in and how you are taking care of them (which direction does the sunlight come from, how often you water, etc.) you will no doubt get some excellent advice from this forum. mike

[Willc73]

Ok, they are in moss, they don't get direct sun, however it is rather bright in there.I can try and move positions, maybe move them higher up. I have some that are below a canopy of ferns, maybe that is the problem.

[jerrymeola]

Failure to bloom is almost always a lack of light. People are mislead because orchids are found in jungles that they need a shady area. In fact, orchids live it the canopy of the forest high up where they get large amounts of sun.

Southern California summer sun is about 10-11,000 foot candles at noon.
Light levels vary depending on the family of orchids but for examples
Vandas in California can take almost full day sun without any shade. 6-8000 foot candles. I grow my Vandas in full sun with only a little shade from 1-4 o'clock.

Cattleyas and dendrobiums of which you probably have some need 3500 foot candles. Full morning sun with afternoon shade works.

Oncidium alliance about 2500.

The first thing you should do is measure the light in every spot where you have an orchid to learn with what you are working.

Measurement can be done easily with a camera.
Measuring light levels with an SLR camera
while the article says a SLR camera, any camera will work. You just have to be careful you have only the sheet of paper in the view of the cameras sensors.

Blooms will come from new growth. On a mature plant, almost every new growth should produce flowers.

It is unlikely that you have any exotic orchids that have special requirements since they are not easy to buy by accident. A good nursery selling you an orchid with special requirements would have told you when you purchased it. It is not realistic that every plant you own could fall in this category.

I would be concerned about any orchids that are not showing new growth. Every orchid should put up 1 or more new growths this summer. Most are starting around now. An orchid will occasionally skip a season but it is not a good sign. Usually it means the medium in which it is planted is no good.

But check the light first. This is where the problem usually starts.

[Willc73]

Ok, good tips. Makes some sense as the one orchid that did bloom was much higher up than the others.

[jerrymeola]

That is a good point that I usually forget to mention. Whenever you have shade cloth, windows, glass, plastic or anything between the sun and your plants the light levels fall off exponentially as the distance between the plant and the light blocking item increases. Plants higher in a greenhouse are getting more light than those lower.

For those growing indoors this means the further you are from a window the faster the light levels drop.

Keep both factors in mind when choosing a location for you plants.

[Willc73]

I was at the LA flower mart this morning getting some cut flowers for my wifes birthday and one place had some large hanging Playa's? Paya's Piya's? something like that. They said they required a lot of light. They were hanging in a basket roots exposed with no planting medium not bloomed.
They were cheap $6.00 each. Do you have an idea of what they were? sorry I don't have any more info.
Also I did pick up 4 large Phala's for $12 each, blooming also.
Good deals I thought.