Blooms drying up

[conbghm]

I am having trouble with buds drying up and falling off my catts before they bloom. They are outside on a shady deck under the trees for the summer, where they get indirect sunlight. We water them about twice a week.
I suspect humidity could be the problem, but we have very humid conditions here in southern Illinois, usually between 60-80 percent in the summer.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what my problem is and how to correct it?

[JLu]

Guaranteed it is not high humidity. Catts need high humidity. What are the plants in question? Are they Catts or intergeneric hybrids? What color are the leaves...deep green, green,green/yellow, or possibly yellow? What are they potted in? How wet are you keeping them? Have you sprayed with an insecticide to eliminate the possibilty of thrips?

Lot questions...no help! See if you answer some of them.

[jerrymeola]

My biggest source of dried buds is Thrips.

I do not find humidity to be a factor with Cattleya buds.

Thrips have a three day life cycle so you should treat 4 times over ten days to be sure they are gone.

I also spray my buds with worm tea which puts moist into the buds if needed and destroys thrips as well.

[conbghm]

The leaves are a deep green on some of them, and I know that means they're not getting enough light.
I have never sprayed them with any kind of insecticide. How do I know I have thrips, and what do you recommend I use on them?

[Brooke]

If the buds appear to have the "innards" sucked out of them, it is probably thrips. I don't know if you can see the thrips if you pry open the unopened bud, but if you do get a bloom and look at it, you can see them moving around on it. They are brown-ish and about the size of a hyphen mark in this sentence.

Brooke