How to flower Onc Sweet Sugar

[jmateosky]

I am a newbie to this forum. I have been growing orchids about 10 years now 3 in Costa Rica and the rest in Central FL. I live in a cloud forrest at 5000' (1500M). temps extremes 13C - 33C but ususally 16C-23C. No heaters hear always breazy.

I am in the process of adding to my collection of local species (there are 1500 here) I am only at 75. I am aslo trying to work with the locals and the local tree police to place orchids back in the forrest, this is much harder than it sounds.

I have Cats flowering, Onc. Sherry Baby, Wild Cat Red , whites flowering, tricopilias, miltonopsis roezli flowering....

I have a question:

I have a Brassia Rex, and a Onc. Sweet Sugar, that are growing like weeds are healthy there blubs are huge and each new one is exponetially larger, BUT I can't get them to flower.

How to get them to flower? I am fertilizing them with a couple different types of Orchid fertilizer that is suppose to induce flowering, but nothing.

should I dry them? Put them in a lot more sun?

Jim Mateosky

[jerrymeola]

You have excellent conditions for intergenetic Oncidium. They like cool airy growing conditions. Being high up on a mountain will give you larger flower sprays then I can get in the hotter Florida climate.

The Sweet Sugar likes the same conditions as Sherry Baby so if one blooms both should.

Brassia are sometimes hit or miss but I usually bloom 75 % each year.

you might cut down on the Nitrogen fertilizer, or stop all fertilizer for 6 months. Then again the plants may just bloom spectacular in the near future.

[jmateosky]

Jerry,

In the Fall the Sherry baby and wild cats even the sweet sugar were blooming, the others continue to bloom but the Sweet sugar are growing like monsters the bubs look "pregnant" when the flower they flower awesome. do you know what triggers them to bloom? Light changes, temp, dryer (res season) I don't give them much of a rest period.

Jim

[Ellen]

I have an Onc Sweet Sugar that's over 15 years old, and it has bloomed like clockwork every fall. I think what triggers it to bloom is the change in day length - as days get shorter it initiates a spike. It also gets lots of light and fairly dry conditions in summer, so you might try reducing water and giving plenty of sun in summer. If the pseudobulbs wrinkle a little, don't worry about it. Mine went for three-plus months without any water whatsoever one summer when I was away, and the flowers that fall were amazing!

My Sweet Sugar blooms almost all summer, and needs lots of water--outdoors two or three times a week and indoors in the winter twice a week. Outdoors I give it strong morning sun and then bright sun for the rest of the day and indoors it's in a cool west window. Someone once told me in addition to my regular fertilizer to give my plants one tablespoon of epsom salts (magnesium) to one gallon of water once a week for three weeks to enduce flowering. It worked.

[Ellen]

Well, this just goes to show you that the same plant will bloom for different growers under very different conditions. The bottom line is that if whatever you're doing isn't working, change something and see what happens. If you change only one thing at a time, then you have a better chance of figuring out what works and what doesn't. After re-reading your post, it sounds as if I may have misunderstood your question and you may be asking how to get Sweet Sugar to bloom multiple times a year. I don't think you'll have much success with this, since in my experience it's a once-a-year bloomer.

[jmateosky]

I thought epsom salts helped floage? interesting.

My goal tos to get these plants to flower, I have several and several wildcats and sherry babys, fhey flowers bloomed in the fall ( I am in Coasta rica seasons don't change very much at all here) but only a couple. So I would like to get these guys to stop growing like BAD weeds and flower.


Thanks for all off you advice.

[tom499]

i have recently bought one of these plants, not in bloom (as its cheaper i'm only a kid afterall) so i would be very interested to hear if you any tips

[jerrymeola]

jmatosuky

Any individual orchid can have unique growing conditions, which will vary year to year.

Even groups can vary greatly year to year.

You mentioned the Sherry Baby bloomed well for you in the fall of 2006. They did not bloom at all in fall (the normal blooming season) 2007 in Hawaii or Florida. Then they came on strong in the winter from October to January.

It is possible that when a plant is growing leaves rapidly it will delay flowering until it fills the area into which it is growing. I like this situation since eventually it will reward me with a greater amount of flowers.

In a commercial greenhouse we can expect that 20% of our crop will skip blooming in any one year. Thankfully not the same ones every year. Plants that skip a year usually come back with triple the flowers the next year.

[patticake]

You talk about the plants doing so well.... This is GOOD! It can only mean that they're getting charged up for a fantastic show! Just be patient. Your good care will pay off eventually.

[mehitabel]

My O. Sweet Sugar sets spikes in August. At that time here, it is still very hot, but the nights are getting longer, and somewhat cooler, getting into the 50F range.

Quite a few O intergenerics seem to be triggered at the same time (and therefore the same conditions). So I agree with Ellen, it seems to be the shorter days/ longer nights that does the trick.

[fred]

mehitabel

can you please go to your usercp and update your profile with your location.
as we do not know what your conditions are.

thanks
Fred