BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Orchids My Orchids won't bloom

About three (or more?) years ago I bought two orchids for about $5 or $10, a Dendrobium, and a Phalaenopsis. They bloomed beautifully and I soon ended up buying an oncidium as well. That one also bloomed. For two years they bloomed well, and the Phal actually bloomed twice in one year (Spring and Fall). I was so excited.

But now none of my orchids have bloomed for about a year and a half, and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. This year I'm trying to be a little more diligent in reading up on them, hoping I'll find the right light/watering/temp combination. Is this something orchids sometimes do?

My dendrobium has gone through two stages of sending out little keikis (so now I have three more little orchids - one that is now growing healthily since Spring and two that I just repotted - so it's not all bad news). And my Sharry Baby went through a stage of getting accordian leaves but now the new growth seems to be smoother.

I spray them every morning and water them about every week or two, I probably water too little as compared to too much. They are in a Southwest upstairs window (the brightest room in my house). Over the summer I had them at least 2 or 3 feet from the window, now I've moved them closer. I try to keep water in a tray under them, but not as easy with my Sharry baby due to the kind of pot it's in.

I don't know what other information to give since I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Anybody have any ideas?

Do you fertilize? I used to religiously fertilize until we got a fish. We have a betta in a 2 gallon tank and now I use his water on all my plants. Everything is so green and healthy and blooming like crazy.

Sounds like you are treating your orchids very well. The most common problem is not enough light, but since yours rebloomed already that is probably not the problem. You might want to think about repotting them -- often if the potting medium has deteriorated the plants will have a hard time growing well.

Thank you for your responses. Yes, I do fertilize them regularly. But I don't have a fish, seems like that was a good idea!

You are probably right about the repotting, at least on some of them. The Sharry Baby I repotted right away after I got it, into a pot that seems plenty big. Even after 2 years there seems to be plenty of room in the pot (6 inch pot), but all on one side. It seems all new growth crowds in behind the old growth, even though there is plenty of space in front of it. Not sure how to get it to come in more evenly all over. Should I just take it all out and place it more central in the pot? Or just take it out and use the same pot with new potting medium, since they say not to use too big a pot? (although the potting medium still looks pretty good).

The Dendrobium and the Phalaenopsis, I think should probably be repotted. I've been procrastinating, worrying that I'll repot at the wrong time. I'm not sure how to know if it is at the end of the growing season, or just starting, when it hasn't bloomed for awhile. Both of them seem to have healthy new leaves coming in. It used to be that my Phal always had three leaves. When the next one started coming in, the first one would die and drop off, but now it has 4, plus a very new one coming in. A year ago something seemed to be eating the edges of the leaves. It was driving me crazy since I couldn't see anything on the leaves, but I finally washed them off carefully with water and it seemed to take care of it, although ever since there are three or four gouges in the leaves that I have to put up with till those leaves finally die off.

I hope you don't mind all these questions, it is so great to finally find a place to get some tips on whether I'm doing it "right"!

The people in our orchid society claim that Phalaenopsis just love to be repotted; they also need some chilling (2 weeks or so of temperature drops, at least at night) to produce an inflorescence. I think they need low- to mid-50'sF.
When you repot the Dendrobium, use the very smallest pot you can move up to - Dendrobiums like to be pretty crowded, and if they have a lot of 'foot room' they will continue to produce more and more foliage at the expense of flowering. If you ever go to an orchid show, look at the containers the Dendrobiums are potted in (and not the cache pots) - they will likely look just pitifully crowded - and they like it that way.
Have fun - Nancy

Thank you! Next spring maybe I'll put the Phalaenopsis outside for a few weeks when it gets a little warmer. I wish I had known this a month ago, we were having perfect 50 degree temps at night and 60s-70s during the day. Now it is way too cold.