How to bloom Oncidium sphacelatum?

14 years ago

Hello Folks:

I'm creeping out of lurkdom to ask:

what conditions do I have to provide for Oncidium sphacelatum to bloom?

I have a medium sized plant that has been potted in an 8 inch clay pot for at least 4 years.It's now creeping out of the pot. It's been put outside in nearly full sun every summer, watered and fertilized, gets a sunny spot in the little greenhouse, and still no blooming. It gets a cool dry rest in the winter. Since it is such a bench hog it has one last chance to show me what it can do. Perhaps it is too cool in the greenhouse? It goes down to about 50 degrees F in the winter.

My Oncidum Twinkle and O. ornithorhyncum bloom faithfully and have numerous spikes right now.

Thanks for any input - I appreciate it :-)

Happy growing

Maryanne in WMass

Featured Answer

Julie Anastasiow

8 years ago

I'm new here. Northern California, just north of SF. I bought one in full bloom ( 20 ) stems 3 yrs ago. After the bloom it went into seclusion, so I repotted it. Larger pot, removed all the potting medium replaced with bark, put it on an east facing window sill (with film on the window) it doesn't like direct sun, but loves light. 50-80 degrees F. Water, that is, drench roots 10 min, and drain in the sink every 3 weeks, no standing water! Water spray the foliage at least once a week. only outdoors with no direct sun during summer. It has rewarded me with solo but constantly recurring giant stems with about 50 flowers since January. I give a mild orchid fert. every other week. I am getting ready to divide as it is growing on top of itself so I should gain about 4-5 new plants. If you can convert this info to your habitat it should flower for you. It's beautiful. Good luck!

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Comments (13)

arthurm
14 years ago
It is a space hog and a climber. It is not too cool in your greenhouse at all. It is a shadehouse, sheltered spot plant in the garden here and that means lots of temps in the 5 to 10C range winter nights and a few dips to the 1 to 5C range.

I suspect too much kindness on your part. "Nearly full sun" in WMass might be not enough and light levels in winter?. I have a primary hybrid with it as a parent (an unwanted gift) it has outgrown the shadehouse, never flowered. So it has been evicted and is now a garden plant. If it doesn't flower soon i'll sneak it onto a sales table when the giftor is not looking.

Suggest you do likewise (sell it to some unsuspecting soul) and buy yourself another variety of Twinkle or even another ornithorhynchum. (i've got four).
orchidnick
14 years ago
I have a large plant which grows outside in SOCAL. Cold in the winter, hot in the summer. Grows alright but has never bloomed. I'm in the process of building a greenhouse and since its a WARM GROWER it will get a chance in there. If it won't bloom in there either I will sell it on eBay as a rare and unusual species which is a must in any collection!!!!!

Frustrating plant for me.

Nick
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I would like to leave it intact, but I went out into the greenhouse and thought about the air flow, light and water, and what areas had the room for the flowers. I decided I couldn't do it without impacting a lot of the other plants. So, I spent the morning dividing it. I have a piece that is about 1/4 of the original that I am keeping for myself. That is still a big plant. The plant was very healthy. The plant had been in an 8" pot with medium that was completely broken down and had no live roots. But that pot had been placed in a 12" pot with no medium and a wonderful mass of new roots grew in there. There were no bugs and no leafless pseudobulbs. New, healthy roots were all through the plant. The results were: 1. A nice piece for me. 2. 12 plants, that is, a lead and at least one other pseudobulb. Most were larger than that. 3. 6 backbulbs with leaves and some root but no lead. 4. 1 well developed new growth with great roots. I am going to document them individually and post on Backbulb.com and then post a link to that in the trades section. If I have any left after it blooms in the spring I sell on eBay also. I don't need a big return since I am already ahead by adding a species to my collection. There will be a link to the list of plants I have in the collection already. The offer to trade for just about any species not listed of any size will be great. I'll go into it more when I post on the trade section.
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sweetcicely
14 years ago
Hi gg, welcome into the light :)

Maybe richardol will see your thread. He grows and blooms this orchid, I believe, and has a piece about Onc. sphacelatum on his BackBulbs site (URL below).

Sweetcicely

Here is a link that might be useful: Oncidium sphacelatum in bloom
arthurm
14 years ago
Oh well, cannot be right all the time, but i'm not about to rush off and buy one.

The key words on Jays site are "giant sized" so i think Nick' s course of action should be followed...i like the "rare and unusual and a must in any collection" spiel.
orchidnick
14 years ago
Looked up Ricardo's blurb and also Jay Phal. For me the key and the hope is 'warm to hot growing' mentioned by both. I'll give it some heat and see what it does.

Nick
richardol
14 years ago
I had a really good show with lots of spikes open blooming in May. I grow them in both greenhouses warm and very bright. The flowers last fairly well and are good growers.

If anybody feels their collection is incomplete without one, I have some 3 and 4 pseudobulb divisions that have been growing bare root for a year. Shipping potted would be just way too much money. Ask me offline, I'll do a deal.
stitzelweller
14 years ago
"If it won't bloom in there either I will sell it on eBay as a rare and unusual species which is a must in any collection!!!!!"

Good Luck, Nick!
It grows well and flowers easily around here. This area is saturated with this species. I've seen auctions where no one wants it because everyone either has one or has grown one and decided that it's too much of a PITA!

--Stitz--
richardol
14 years ago
I couldn't quite see Nick smiling as he wrote that, but I took it to be a snark on how plants are described on eBay.
garlicgrower
Original Author
14 years ago
Hello All:
Thanks for all comments (snarky and other wise ;-)
I was kind of expecting that slant...I think this thing is going to be a freebie to someone who has room for it.
The greenhouse here on the UMass campus has several that do bloom, but the advise was that they treat it "like all the others" and they just bloom.

I think it may get too cold in my little GH, or that I might have a vegetative clone....sometimes that happens. sigh.

On to better specimens :-)
Cheers~
Maryanne
orchidnick
14 years ago
Snark is correct. I don't plan to sell it just need to give it what it needs so it will bloom. It's huge, just needs the right environment.

Nick
stitzelweller
14 years ago
"I've seen auctions where no one wants it because everyone either has one or has grown one and decided that it's too much of a PITA"

snark, indeed!
Adré Doidge
3 years ago
Mine is in the fork of my fir tree here in South Africa, so is in quite dense shade. It flowers beautifully every year. Obviously our temps in Winter never drop below about 1C. Has been there for more than 14 yrs, inherited it when we bought our home, so not sure how old it actually is.

How to bloom Oncidium sphacelatum?

Julie Anastasiow

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How to bloom Oncidium sphacelatum?

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