Growing Cymbidiums in the house

[DManley]

I got a Phal to rebloom this year by keeping it in an upstairs bedroom by a West window, with a heater running during the day, but getting cooler at night. (Room was used as an office, so I didn't keep the heat on most nights.) Would that work to force blooming in a cymbidium? (I know the day and night temps would need to be cooler for the cymb) I can keep the door closed, and keep the plant in a South window. That should heat it up a bit during the day, and cool it off at night. If the temp isn't swinging enough, I could give it a touch of heat during the daytime (Maybe up to 65 or so?) just by opening the door for a couple of hours. (The rest of the house is heated)

How long does it need the temp swings? Just a few weeks, or through the whole winter? If it misses a day or two, does it throw the whole thing off, or does the plant see an occasional warm night or cold day in nature and not worry about it?
If I sat the plant outside during the Fall in Michigan, would that be enough to get things going? (I could go pretty late, if it didn't mind coming in a night or two a week when frost hit.)

I think I will go ahead and ebay a cymbidium to try. I have been wanting one for a long time, and I am ordering another few other orchids from a vendor who has a couple of cymbidiums for sale. I just didn't want to buy an expensive plant and kill it off the first season! (BTW, if I set up a room like this for a Cymbidium, would a nobile Dendrobium, or another cool Dend. like Farmeri work in the same conditions?)

Thanks,
Dave

[silken]

I think you would have a good chance at blooming a standard Cym in the conditions you describe DManley. Lots of people leave their Cyms out at night in the fall until near frost and that hardens them off and helps set spike. I do that as well. I don't think the occasional warmer day should hurt as nature isn't totally reliable either. My greenhouse gets sunnier (thus warmer) and cloudier days and the cym blooms. They do like fairly high light even in the winter so a south window should be OK. Make sure the leaves aren't burning tho.

Quite often if Phals are reluctant to bloom a month with cooler temps will kick start it. The Cym can take more cold than a Phal and mine is in cooler temps all winter as we live in zone 2b prairies in Canada and leave the greenhouse at 55 or 60 at night at only 65 max in the day.

[Paerata]

I can see I erred to some degree by initially posting this on the Beginners Board. The posts I've read here suggest my concerns duplicated below are reasonable for success?
In my quest to have my Cymbidiums flower this year and following advice from the group is it time to bring the two of them indoors? I'm interested to know what the pattern might be with those of you in similar environments like Niagara Falls Ontario.
We had our first frost Tuesday night. I put the orchids under our back verandah putting them back outside in the morning.
My plan is to close off the heating vent of a south facing bedroom window and place to orchids near to it. I will leave another window, northeast facing open a tad and monitor the temperatures. I will ensure heat can't get under the door into the room.
Does my plan need any refinements for success?

[Brenda Aarts]

Hi Paerata,

My conditions would be very similar to yours, in fact we had frost last night and Tuesday. My 20 or so cymbidiums remain outside in an arbour and on evenings where frost is a threat I've been covering them with bed sheets and clothespinned closed. They are fine in fact a few spiking now and enjoying the sunshine during the days. In the next week or 2 when frost is more frequent I will move indoors as well. I'm not sure what yours are sitting on...ie shelf..bench, but I was told as well to keep them up off the cold cement ground. Your indoor set up sounds fine to me...just don't freeze yourself out or pay a fortune in hydro as they are fairly adaptable from my understanding, however do like it cooler in winter. Good luck.

[stonedragonfarms]

Dave: where in MI are you growing? I'm up South of Cadillac... I would recommend putting your cymbids out as soon as spring night temps are reliably above 45F, and leaving them out through the fall until there are frosts, if it's just a night or two, set them in the garage and move them back out in the morning. After spikes are initiated, it seems that day temperatures are not so much a factor of spikes blasting as are night temperatures. It is routinely 76-80F in the greenhouse if the sun is out, but my furnace will not come on until temps drop below 45F...though I will grow with 48F nights this year...I'm trying a bit on an experiment. Nights above 52-55F seem to be when cymbids experience spike blast, at least in my experience.
Silken: wow, and I thought that we were cold in the winter here in zone 5...I grow about 85% cymbids, the rest being a smattering of dendrobium moniliforme, neofinetia, paphs & a few oddball others, but I usually keep the greenhouse between 43-48F at night. 55 would be down right tropical for me!

[silken]

Stonegragonfarms, zone 5 sounds tropical to me I used to have the night temp. set to 50 and it seemed like some of my plants didn't do well with that. I grow some catts, phals, Paphs, onc. alliance, 1 bulbo and 1 phrag. Maybe I was watering too much for the cool temps, who knows. So last winter I raised it to 55 at night and 65 in the day. I am in the process of making some little micro climates for the Phals and Paphs etc. that will be a bit more warm and humid than some of the other areas. Mine is still a work in progress in figuring out what my plants like in the winter. Our greenhouse is attached to a main wall of our house that is all windows. The roof is 3 ply corrugated clear acrylic. The greenhouse is set in the ground about 3 ft with an insulated concrete pony wall and triple glazed windows and patio door that all slide open for summer. We have an energy efficient Pulse forced air furnace in there that also heats a 3rd of our house. We've never seen really larger heating bills with the greenhouse. I guess because our wall of windows in the house now faces the greenhouse and we don't lose a lot of the house heat thru them. We get a lot of sun here in winter (and summer) and it likely helps a lot with the heat on winter days.

[DManley]

Stonedragonfarms, I am not too far from you. I live in Houghton Lake. I don't have a greenhouse, though. I am just getting my feet wet with orchids. I wanted to try a couple of Cymbidiums to see if they are more suited to my conditions than the other ones I am growing. The vendor I am planning to order from has Little Black Sambo, and Chen's Ruby. Other posters have told me to stay away from the Sambo until I get more experience, so I am thinking of getting the Ruby. I am glad to hear from somebody growing them in roughly the same conditions that I am. That makes me a bit more confident! I also appreciate the advice. I will probably keep it in the house through the Winter, as by the time I get it, it will be too late to put it outside, but I will put it outside as soon as Spring hits.

Thanks,
Dave

[Paerata]

Is it a prerequisite to have the spike appearing before a cymbidium is taken inside in order to have it flower or does it not matter since the spike may develop indoors? If it is the former, that the spike needs to appear before the plant is taken indoors, it encourgaers it to be left outside as long as possible?

[silken]

It isn't a pre-requisite for a spike to be showing. Usually just leave the plant out until frost is a risk and if it can go out for some cool days still, even if you have to bring it in at night, that usually helps prolong the chill period and give you a better chance of spiking. Mine didn't spike until sometime in the winter after it was residing indoors completely.

[stonedragonfarms]

Dave: good to hear that there are others so near that are experimenting--you will be addicted in no time I am sure... I can attest to Little Black Sambo being a difficult child; mine likes to bloom every other year, though now that I hang it at the top of the greenhouse and water the heck out of it, that might be corrected. I have found that it needs high summer temps, ample water during growth, and a long cool & dry winter rest. Mine (when it blooms) typically blooms in April, with flowers persisting until about mid June. I have not grown Chens Ruby, but I am told that it is more temperature non-dependent, so I would imagine that it would do well indoors under lights or in a bright window. You might also look for pretty much anything with C. ensifolium in the background; when I was growing under lights, I was able to reliably bloom both ensifolium and its hybrids--with no large drops in temps, aside from those that occurred "naturally" in my apartment at the time.
If you are around over Turkey Day weekend, there is an orchid show down in Midland--there aren't usually too many cymbids there, as it's a bit early in the season, but the displays are quite nice, and the sale plants are fun to browse.
Paerata: what Silken says is very true; there are plants in my collection that will not begin to show anything resembling spikes until mid January or so...be patient with your plants, and keep them as cool as possible during the night hours, and as bright as possible during the day.