Woe is me - Cymbidiums

[malcolm]

I am a novice starting last year. I inherited 30 Cymbidium plants from my wife who has resigned and had 28 spikes last year it looks as if there are only 9 this year. The weather has been cooler (9-10C) at night. My reputation is at stake. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks from South Africa

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Maybe you had a lot of warm nights during fall, or just uniform day/night temps. I think a day/night differential is what is called for as well as cool nights.

I used to worry about over watering Cymbidiums like we do for Cattleyas. But, after years of producing smallish bulbs and poor or non-existent bloomings, I somewhere picked up the notion I wasn't keeping them moist enough. After all, they are semi-terrestrials, most of them. Since then, a few years back (I've been growing for about 45 years), I have watered more, daily during warm weather, and now have respectable sized bulbs and most bloom well, considering the dislocation and readjustments of moving from frost-only Southern California to 6000' in Arizona where something had to be done to protect these plants from hard freezes, and still give them lots of light.

Also, what are you doing for fertilizing? The general consensus for most orchids is that the change to high bloom fertilizer is of no value. However, long time Cymbidium growers seem to be quit certain that using high bloom in the fall does something very positive for Cymbidiums. Haven't used this stuff my self yet, but may do so this fall. Cynthia, Prescott, AZ