How to make Paphiopedium bellatulum bloom?

[fibre]

Hello all,

First, thank you very much for all your helpful answers, it’s nice to see a so active community.

So, if I try to summarize your advice, I should :

• Give a little rest to my bellatulum during winter (except if a bud is here?),
• Keep it with lower temps during winter,
• Keep it in a place with moderate light,
• Increase the humidity especially when I can spot a bud,
• Water it more often. NO!

I don’t use fan.

So, I’ll try to apply all your advice and see what happen. I’ll let you know.

One last question: among the Brachypetalum, which ones could I try in my actual conditions and succeed with like with my thaiannum? niveum is most close

Thank you again for your help.

All the best.

 

[Mafate]

I live in the area where they grow.
We found plants flowering at 400m altitude and higher up in the mountains at 1200m.
Our best travelling season is November until end of January, temperatures in the 30ies during the day and 10 to 20 Celsius during the night, lower in the mountains.
This year no rain for 3 months! Recently good rain twice with a chance for no rain and high temperatures until May.
This means there has to be a water supply by dew in nature. I use overhead sprinklers every day for 1 or 2 min.
The plants do not bloom all at the same time in nature and in my place. There are two peak times .

Make a long story short, if possible reduce the night temperature and give a little less water .
I grow all my Paphs under these conditions and it works .

Thank you werner.freitag for your advice and you interesting testimony, I never imagined that there could be such long droughts where these plants grow!

Regards.

 

[Mafate]

Hi fibre, thank you for the correction!

All the best.

 

[Mafate]

Hello again,

fibre (everyone is welcome to respond!), by crossing out the word "little" when I wrote "Give a little rest", you indicate to me that the rest must be quite substantial for my bellatulum.

How long should this rest be? How often do you water your plant during this period? I guess if the roots get completely dry, they will die, won't they? Do you spray its foliage?

Thank you for these details.

Regards

 

[Cheoah]

The sun is far more intense for my plants this time of year. It is lower in the sky and shines much more brightly through the windows in early spring/ late fall. Add to that heating systems that decrease humidity, makes it easy to cook your plants.
cheers

 

[fibre]

Hello again,

fibre (everyone is welcome to respond!), by crossing out the word "little" when I wrote "Give a little rest", you indicate to me that the rest must be quite substantial for my bellatulum.

How long should this rest be? How often do you water your plant during this period? I guess if the roots get completely dry, they will die, won't they? Do you spray its foliage?

Thank you for these details.

Regards

I usual give bellatulum a substantial rest to keep it healthy, that means to me that I try to give no water on top of the pot but to water from the bottom. There are lots of limestones on the bottom of my pot. I give it about 0.5 cm every week. The stones get moist and so do the roots at the bottom. They don't get bone-dry and the mix doesn't get wet during winter, even if a bud is developing.

 

[Mafate]

Hello all, than you again for your help.

And thank you very much fibre for these useful details.

Sincerely.

 

[big923cattleya]

Hello all,

I need your help to make my Paphiopedilum bellatulum bloom because I have never succeeded with this.

I grow it in my house behind a South facing window with my Paphiopedilum thaianum and this last one blooms every year.

Its substrate is made of bark, oyster shells, perlite and dead sphagnum moss.

I water it once a week and give it fertiliser every two weeks (N/P/K 20/20/20, 1g per litre).

It grows well and sometimes it begins some buds but they always dry.

So what is bad in my culture conditions? What would you change?

Thank you for your help.

Bellatulum grows in the leaf litter on top of limestone. They like 60-80% humidity and never grow dry. 1,300-1800 foot candles.