Thrips and thrips ....

Being too busy and didn't photograph the Cycnodes :((. Must make to note to photo the last Cycnode spike expected to bloom by mid week.

The Ren. Kalsom finally bloomed. Unfortunately, 2 weeks of negligence has resulted in thrips coming back as evident by the white streaks on the petals. The white streaks are also seen on the dendrobium flowers. Wish there were other methods to get rid of the thrips other than chemical warfare. Got to go on the warpath again today as there are 3 new den spikes again.

Rhynchlorides Memoria Suranaree

My Rhynchlorides bloomed and guess what, there is another new spike forming off the spike (see the top left corner). And I see another spike to the left of the current one. This is exciting! The stems seems a little thin though.

A new spike to the left of the existing spike

This is buy is just perfect. The plants flowers every 3-4 months and now more frequent. The new fertilizer seems to be working. However, need to pay more attention to the overall health of the plant. Orchids do have the tendency to put out a last ditch effort to propagate it's genes when threatened or diseased with "extra flower spikes". I lost a dendrobium this way. However this plant appears healthy.

I have switched to include a Super-K water soluble in my fertilizing regime. I used do 15-27-27 (67) on the first week and 15-15-15 (63) subsequently. Learnt this from a course by OSSEA. Decided to insert in a Super-K mix on the first week instead and 67 the second week with the rest of the month 63. The Super-K has seems to trigger the dendrobium bonaza. Unfortunately, this regime do not move the Grammatophyllums.

Got hold a several Orchid books from Central Library. Unfortunately, none of the books were written by Asians and do not mention Grammatophyllums.. I would recommend 2 of the books of the I borrowed - Understanding ORCHIDS by William Cuillina and ORCHIDS by Wilma and Brian Rittershausen. Both are reader friendly and will appeal to both novice and experienced growers. I'll go back to the books now and hopefully can find a means to keep the bugs at bay with less chemicals.. ciao