How to make flower stalks taller? These methods you need to master
As the saying goes: only when it gets difficult to grow do you truly understand orchids. However, among the four seasons, growing orchids in summer is especially difficult, and the difficulty lies in the summer's "rot disease" being impossible to guard against. Experienced orchid growers all know that in the hot and humid summer, the frequent occurrence of soft rot and stem rot is a major worry for orchid growers! If "bai lashi" is the cancer of orchids,...
Author: March Stone
First, I think what affects the flower stalk the most is temperature, followed by humidity. Flower buds are most sensitive to the effect of temperature.
If you want to increase the flower stalk height, the temperature must not be too high, do not exceed 20°C; it is best to keep the high temperature around 15°C, and the low temperature between 5-10°C. In this way, the flower buds open relatively slowly and are easier to make taller; once the temperature is too high, the flower buds, in order to catch up with spring, open as soon as they emerge from the bud sheath. Many orchid growers have short flower stalks on balconies. I think this is because when the balcony is closed, as soon as the sun comes out, sometimes the temperature is too high, which is too stimulating to the flower buds and makes them open early. (In the balcony where I used to grow orchids, on sunny winter days, with the windowsill closed, the temperature was over 20°C.)
Before Spring Festival, I forced a pot of Songmei. After the flower buds had completed vernalization and before they had started to move, I put it on the balcony. The balcony temperature was between 15°C-20°C during the day and around 10°C at night, and the humidity was not high (because there is a sliding door separating the balcony from the room, and the room has heating). Through experimentation, the flower stalk could still grow taller afterward, because for a period before that, the temperature was quite high, and the temperature in the orchid room rose quickly (the orchid room had light from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.). When the temperature exceeded 20°C, I opened the orchid room windows for ventilation and opened a few pots. The pictures below were all taken on the second day after they opened, and they could still grow taller. Overall, the flower stalks were not considered short:
2. Next is the humidity issue. High humidity is naturally beneficial for making the stalk taller, but it is not as influential as temperature. In the two different humidity environments of my balcony and orchid room, the flower stalks opened to about the same height. The main thing is still temperature control; it must not rise too quickly, and the flower buds must be allowed to open slowly. In addition, I think that when trying to make the stalk taller, watering thoroughly once is more beneficial for making the stalk taller.
3. The light issue. I do not think that shading or exposing to the sun has a direct stimulating effect on making the stalk taller. What stimulates the flower buds is still the temperature issue. The so-called placing them under the orchid shelf, in a place that cannot get sunlight, is because the temperature under the shelf is low.