Zygopetalum deformed first flowers

[Dalachin]

Is it common for flowers on a first flowering if a zygo to be malformed? On one, the lip is fused to a petal, and the other two have underdeveloped lips. Nice fragrance though. First flowering of my first zygo… from SVO last April.

[Roberta]

I would consider that unusual. Especially on three different plants. Might be worth a message to Fred Clarke to get his input. Like, did he see that in the plants that he has in the nursery? That's the sort of thing I have seen on Catts treated with Superthrive. So it could be cultural, or could be genetic.

[Louis_W]

Dalachin this is all on one plant correct? I would wait until a second blooming to make the call. Unless you are treating the plant with any unusual chemicals I would dismiss this as a first blooming quirk and only call it a pattern if it blooms like this again.

[Dalachin]

All on one plant. There are three blooms on one spike, all are weird. I don’t use superthrive. I use kelpak, but only on repot or as a supplenrnt and definitely not since this plant has been budding. I thought I might send pics to Fred and see what he thinks.

[Leafmite]

It might just be a first blooming or it might be a genetic issue...it might take a few blooming cycles to see which it is. Does Kelpak have any effect on blooms? I do not use it so I would not know. I hope you will update us on this.

[Dalachin]

I sent the pics to Fred and he says “Looks deformed…. Might be because it is not well rooted yet, I see you repotted it. I would flower it again with a more established plant.”

So i guess we’ll just wait and see what the next growth brings, fingers crossed!