# Premature blooming



## The Mutant (Nov 17, 2012)

To my demise, I discovered that my Paph callosum var. sublaeve is going to bloom on three of its four new fans. The thing is; they are TINY?! When I got it this summer, it had two mature fans, of which one had just bloomed, with a leaf span of ca 20 cm (8"), and one new growth. It quite quickly got another three new leads, and I was thrilled since this promised a really nice blooming next year. 

I checked it for mealybugs today, when I realized that three of these little fans are in low bud. I haven't even looked for any sign of buds since they are so small with a leaf span of ca 7 cm (2" and 3/4")! I had noticed that the leaves had stopped growing, but I thought it could have something to do with it depending more on the supportive light instead of the natural one.

To me this seems to be a sign of stress of some sort, but I don't know what. Could it be a light issue? Or should I pull it out of its pot and check the roots? I'm very worried about this little guy, and I love the pattern on its leaves, so I hope it's nothing serious.


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## emydura (Nov 17, 2012)

Yes, it is a result of some sort of stress. Low humidity is considered a cause by many. I was having this problem a lot with many of my Paphs a couple of years back. Especially with the Barbata species such as yours. Since changing fertilisers I haven't noticed a problem.


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## wjs2nd (Nov 17, 2012)

emydura said:


> Yes, it is a result of some sort of stress. Low humidity is considered a cause by many. I was having this problem a lot with many of my Paphs a couple of years back. Especially with the Barbata species such as yours. Since changing fertilisers I haven't noticed a problem.



What did you change your fertilizer to?


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## emydura (Nov 17, 2012)

wjs2nd said:


> What did you change your fertilizer to?



Low K, and high Ca & Mg plus kelp.


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## Stone (Nov 17, 2012)

The only thing that I've read which can cause premature flowering ( although I'm sure there are others) is low N or N out of balance with other nutrients. Maybe at some crucial growth stage?


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## SlipperKing (Nov 17, 2012)

Check your roots. It can't hurt to check.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Nov 17, 2012)

I have found that callosum, and its hybrids frequently bloom on what would appear to be immature growths. It's not necessarily a bad sign, they do that sometimes when they are growing vigorously. I've seen them go through phases when they bloom a few times in a year, on seemingly immature growths, then go for 2 years or so without blooming, just growing vegetatively.


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## Ozpaph (Nov 17, 2012)

If you're worried pinch the buds out when they get a little bigger.


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## The Orchid Boy (Nov 19, 2012)

When I gave one of my paphs quite a bit too much light, it bloomed on a growth that was a little smaller and had a very short spike.


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## The Mutant (Nov 19, 2012)

Okay, I'll check the roots ans see if there's something going on there. The humidity level is between 53% - 60% where it stands. It's too low, but it's as high as I can go at the moment.

I feed them with K-lite and seaweed extract, but I'm wondering if it can't be a N related problem anyway?

It's definitely not too much light. We're approaching the darkest months in Sweden with approximately about 6 hours of daylight and decreasing, which means that my collection is more dependent on my daylight bulbs than natural light. 

I'll post a picture tomorrow so you can see for yourself exactly how immature the leads are.


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## Paphman910 (Nov 19, 2012)

The suggestion of checking the roots is good. What mix do you use? During the winter the humidity is often lower so I water it the same as in summer. About 2 times a week. If my mix dries out in 1-2 days I would add more moss so it retains more moisture. The trick is to use the right ratio of moss depending on the pots. Smaller pots require more moss as it has more surface area than a larger pot.


Paphman910


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## The Mutant (Nov 26, 2012)

Paphman910 said:


> The suggestion of checking the roots is good. What mix do you use? During the winter the humidity is often lower so I water it the same as in summer. About 2 times a week. If my mix dries out in 1-2 days I would add more moss so it retains more moisture. The trick is to use the right ratio of moss depending on the pots. Smaller pots require more moss as it has more surface area than a larger pot.
> 
> 
> Paphman910


I haven't gotten around to checking the roots just yet, will do soon.

Oh, dear. I think one of my problems is the fact that all my Paphs take forever to dry out and I don't think I have to water any of them more than once a week, not even those in 5 cm pots... So why the heck do I have sphagnum on top of the substrate? Because if I don't, they'll take the same amount of time to dry out enough for me to water, but they'll be bone dry in the top of the pots instead. And it doesn't seem to matter whether or not they're in pure bark or in my mix of bark, sphagnum, and perlite. It still takes ages for them to dry out enough. I think I should have to invest in a fan or two so they dry out a bit faster.


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## Rick (Nov 26, 2012)

Also what rate are you feeding at?

And how long are you running your supplemental lighting?


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## Paphman910 (Nov 26, 2012)

The Mutant said:


> ...
> 
> I think I should have to invest in a fan or two so they dry out a bit faster.



I have a fan on 24/7 days a week.


Paphman910


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## Paphman910 (Nov 26, 2012)

Paphman910 said:


> I have a fan on 24/7 days a week.
> 
> 
> Paphman910



BTW do you add large perlite to your medium?

Paphman910


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## NYEric (Nov 27, 2012)

Photos?


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## The Mutant (Nov 29, 2012)

Here's a lousy picture of the plant (I'll try to take some better ones when the light levels agree with my camera) which was taken a while ago, so you can't tell that the tiny fans are in bud. One of the buds have started to emerge from the crown now, and it looks like it could be a double bloom.

There are three fans in bud, but I only marked two of them. All the bigger leaves belong to the older fans and the longest is about 14 cm (5" 1/2") whereas on the one of the new fans, it's 5 cm (2").









Rick said:


> Also what rate are you feeding at?
> 
> And how long are you running your supplemental lighting?


I've no idea. I got Ray to help me figuring out how much I should add by telling him the water quality and that I wanted to feed them every watering. I suck at math and can't figure those things out by myself, add to that our different units and I'm lost. 

I run them approximately 18 hours a day since it's so dark outside now. I do need to get another bulb so I won't need to run it for that many hours, but I can't afford it at the moment. 

I figure it's a light and humidity issue mostly, and I have my eye on a humidifier and I know where to bet more light bulbs, but what I don't like is to buy on credit (can you really say that in English? I checked, but it sounds wrong...).

BTW, I've forgotten to thank you for trying to help me figuring out what's wrong with my environment and/or care. It means a lot.



Paphman910 said:


> I have a fan on 24/7 days a week.
> 
> 
> Paphman910






Paphman910 said:


> BTW do you add large perlite to your medium?
> 
> Paphman910


Yup, I think it's good to have fans, especially when it takes such a long time for the substrate to dry out.

I don't know the measure requirements of large perlite, but I don't think mine would qualify as such (the pieces are 1-3mm across). And there's only perlite in the substrate of those I've repotted, so most of my Paphs stand in plain bark at the moment.


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## Rick (Nov 29, 2012)

By feeding rate I just need to know teaspoons per gallon, or any other way you measure it out.


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## wjs2nd (Nov 30, 2012)

Plain bark, a perlite, charcoal, and bark mix should dryout quicker for you. I have had good success with this kind of a mix.


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## The Mutant (Nov 30, 2012)

A more recent picture of the fans, taken today (one of the older ones have died which is why the plant looks smaller):






You can see two of the buds in this picture.


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## wjs2nd (Nov 30, 2012)

Wow, I see what you mean about the leafs being very small. Sorry, I'm not sure why this is happening.


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## Rick (Nov 30, 2012)

I think the 18 hour day may be too long.

Even though my daylenght doesn't get as short as it does in Sweden, my GH plants are presently getting a 9 hour day. My wardii buds are opening just fine.

Maybe growth is getting pushed too hard??


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## wjs2nd (Nov 30, 2012)

The most I have ever had my lights on (very bright LEDs!) is 12 hours and I drop it down to 9 in the winter.


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## Rick (Nov 30, 2012)

wjs2nd said:


> The most I have ever had my lights on (very bright LEDs!) is 12 hours and I drop it down to 9 in the winter.



That's probably good if your lighting is pretty strong, but its pretty standard to run 16 hour days for less intense lighting for many artificial biological systems to simulate summer, or equatorial conditions.

Back in my zoo days, this was good for PNG python species, poison dart frogs, tropical fish, and plants under lights.

But we always decreased duration for part of the year too.


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## The Mutant (Nov 30, 2012)

Rick said:


> I think the 18 hour day may be too long.
> 
> Even though my daylenght doesn't get as short as it does in Sweden, my GH plants are presently getting a 9 hour day. My wardii buds are opening just fine.
> 
> Maybe growth is getting pushed too hard??


I didn't run them for 18 hours before, changed to that just recently so I don't think it's too long. At the moment we get about 6 hours of daylight in Sweden, and since the sky is overcast very often (rain, rain, and more rain), it's not any "quality" daylight either.

I probably have too weak daylight bulbs with, 50W, 6400k, and 2700 lumen, and should invest in something stronger which I could run for a shorter period of time. :/


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## Justin (Nov 30, 2012)

If you are growing all those plants including roths in front of windows, definitely suggest upgrading to maybe a 250 watt High Pressure Sodium or Metal Halide lamp. 

Your plants will jump into strong growth!


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## The Mutant (Dec 1, 2012)

Justin said:


> If you are growing all those plants including roths in front of windows, definitely suggest upgrading to maybe a 250 watt High Pressure Sodium or Metal Halide lamp.
> 
> Your plants will jump into strong growth!


Oh, this is what I call my "Phal light". The multiflora Paphs are all underneath a T5 80W Lumen 5700 (High Output, whatever that is). It's a bit crowded under there, but it works... I think...

The funny part is that the roth growing the absolutely best now, is my 'Big Garden' x 'Lark', the one that has been struggling ever since I got it due to no root system, combined with stupid, newbie roth owner. It's standing in my terrarium with temperatures around 24C, humidity levels at 95%, and the light mostly from one of these daylight bulbs since the terrarium is further away from the window than where the other Paphs and Phals are located. So I'm actually wondering if it isn't mostly a humidity issue (as *Rick* has talked about since the beginning)? 

Also interesting is that my gardineri, which is standing together with my subgenus Paphiopedilums, who are also mostly getting their light from one of these bulbs, is growing what I consider being quite fast.

But maybe they'll all grow even better with stronger lights? I'm thinking about making new fans (which I haven't noticed happening much with anyone, except the biggest of my villosums and my purpuratum) and such.


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