Should my plants be spiking?
 

I have 6 or 7 plants in this genera, and they are all in active growth with good roots, bulbs, and lots of leaves. They are on south facing windowsills with a sheer curtain. But I'm not seeing any spikes. I grow them in repotme's oncidium imperial mix (small orchiata Monterey pine bark, Turface MVP, small granite chips, small black lava rock) and they have about a tablespoon of Osmocote as well. I unfortunately underwater them, though. Is that what's holding back spikes? I'm so busy during the week that I forget to give them water so they get a good dousing on Sundays.

Are the new pseudobulbs as big as the older ones? I'm not experienced with this genus, but have one cycnoches which is just producing a spike, the new pseudobulb is slightly larger than last years. I've been letting mine stand in about 1cm of water, which has not caused any problems.

The fdk. after dark 'svo black pearl' bulb is almost as big as the older one (there are two smaller leafless bulbs too). The others are smaller by a fair amount.

Some of mine are in spike, some blooming and some doing nothing but growing.

My After Dark blooms late fall/early winter. I think it is the last one in this group to bloom. Many of the others are dormant before it spits out spikes.

Brooke

Brooke

Hybrids of this group do not seems to pay much attention to blooming "at the correct time" and will do what they want. The species are usually a bit better about their bloom timing, but even they can be a bit erratic. I wouldn't worry about no spikes until next March-ish.