Question
Hi Jim!
Hope you made it to the Santa Barbara Orchid Show. I bought some dendrobiums, phalaenopsis and cymbidiums from the santa barbara orchid estate and at one of the booths at the orchid show. for some reason all of the blooms are falling off very quickly and the leaves look wilted. All are indoors in indirect light and being watered once a week. Both cymbidiums i bought are about 5-9 yrs old and the owners said to soak these in a bucket of water for thirty minutes once a week.  I noticed that the blooms have become very limp the past couple of days and are beginning to fall off already.  I have been misting them as well in the morning with reverse osmosis water. The cymbidiums are generally doing very well and rebloomed this year, yet I have not been able to get the phals or dendrobiums to rebloom. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your time!
LJ

Answer
Hi LJ,

Yes, I made the pilgrimage to Santa Barbara again this year.  (grin)  

Premature bloom death?  On all of them or only the phalaenopsis or dendrobium?  Do you have some fruits sitting near them?  Ripening fruits produce ethylene gas as they ripen and it may be the cause.  Wilting leaves so soon after you bought them might indicate the potting media is broken down and needs to be replaced.  Try sniffing the pot (orchid pot, not the other stuff - grin) to see if you can detect a sour odor.  If it smells sour that means the potting media has gone bad and should be replaced.  

Cymbidiums should be grown outdoors as much as possible.  It is okay to have them indoors for a few weeks to enjoy the blooms but should be put outside after the blooms die off.  Soaking in a bucket is fine but once a week may be too often when they are indoors.  Cyms prefer the potting media to become barely moist between waterings.  What I do is lift the pot to see how heavy or light it feels and when it feels somewhat light I water.  Depending upon the weather outside, this can be anywhere from every few days to several weeks.  Cym blooms usually will last for 2 months once they've opened but there are some varieties that last shorter and longer than that.  

It is probably too late in the blooming season to get the phal. and dend. to bloom.  Keep caring for them and in the early fall, try exposing them to night temperatures near 55 F for several weeks with day temps above 65 F.  Also, at that time, mix one tablespoon of epsom salt in water and water them with it, that may help initiate the bloom cycle.  

Until then, all of your orchids should be in the process of starting new growth activity, now would be a good time to repot them except possibly the dendrobiums as they do not like to be repotted very often.  

Hope I covered everything.  Let me know if there are other questions or if you'd like more information about the above.  

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.