How to control the flowering period of Cymbidium faberi? A detailed guide to practical methods

   Cymbidium faberi blooms stand gracefully and elegantly, with extraordinary momentum, like the heroic bearing of a scholar-official. It is a famous and precious flower species with a long history that people are happy to grow and admire. For hundreds of years, orchid growers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were the first to start the trend of cultivating and appreciating them; after the reform and opening up, orchid-producing areas such as Anhui, Hubei, Shaanxi, Henan, Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Gansu successively bred a batch of new Cymbidium faberi varieties, making the love of growing Cymbidium faberi sweep the whole country. In the long process of practice, everyone has reached a consensus: growing Cymbidium faberi is easy, but making it bloom is hard, and controlling the flowering period is even harder. This has also relatively suppressed the enthusiasm of some orchid friends for growing Cymbidium faberi. Regarding how to effectively control the flowering period of Cymbidium faberi, I will offer some personal humble views, hoping for correction by experts.

  Control of early flowering in Cymbidium faberi. In order to prompt Cymbidium faberi to bloom at a certain time, so as to enjoy it during the Spring Festival or participate in orchid exhibitions, experienced orchid friends use heating methods to make Cymbidium faberi bloom in about 40 days. For example, at the national orchid exhibition every year, everyone has seen the fragrant and charming appearance of Cymbidium faberi. In this regard, the famous Jiangnan Orchid Garden's flower-forcing technology can be called leading. I also, in order to participate in the 2008 national orchid exhibition, placed two pots of Cymbidium faberi in an orchid friend's office, and they bloomed smoothly before the exhibition. Among them, Wenzhou Su even won a silver award. Such practical experiments are also one of the joys of growing Cymbidium faberi. The specific operation methods will not be discussed much here. Based mainly on the current main topic, I will discuss the following topic more.

  Control of delayed flowering in Cymbidium faberi. According to the geographical and temperature environment of each place, how to make Cymbidium faberi bloom in time for an orchid exhibition is indeed a problem that needs effort to solve. First, the control of Cymbidium faberi flowering should be arranged according to the exhibition period: for example, Jintan in Jiangsu is a city granted by the China Orchid Association for the national Cymbidium faberi exhibition. If we consider participating in the Cymbidium faberi exhibition, then we must pay close attention to the announced exhibition period. The 2007 exhibition period was set up on March 31 and opened on April 1; the 2008 exhibition period was set up on April 3 and opened on April 4; this year's exhibition period was set up on April 10 and opened on the 11th. Everyone can see at a glance: the difference in Cymbidium faberi exhibition times in different years is 10 days and 7 days. If the flowering period is not controlled, then one can only bring already old blooms of Cymbidium faberi there, losing the best opportunity to display the floral appearance, which is a great pity. Based on each year's Cymbidium faberi exhibition period, I implement corresponding natural control measures. When I learned of the Cymbidium faberi exhibition announcement in January, I began to implement the control plan. Second, the basic specific methods for controlling the flowering period of Cymbidium faberi. First, use doors and windows to control temperature changes: starting in early January, as long as the outside temperature is not lower than 0 degrees, keep all east- and south-facing doors and windows of the orchid room wide open all day. If the outside temperature is 2 degrees below 0, open the east- and south-facing doors and windows wide during the day, and at night close half of the doors and windows. If the outside temperature is 3 degrees below 0, still open the east- and south-facing doors and windows during the day, and close them all at night. Starting in late February, regardless of whether it is a warm spring or a late cold spell, keep all doors and windows wide open 24 hours a day. In this way, the dormancy period of Cymbidium faberi can be extended, and correspondingly the flowering period can also be delayed. Not only can Cymbidium faberi bloom in time, but it is also easy for it to bloom properly. In short: it is about how to strengthen ventilation, let the outside air circulate in the orchid room, and use the degree of opening and closing doors and windows to prompt Cymbidium faberi to bloom on schedule. At the same time, one must also pay close attention to the alternation of cold and warm climates, keep a clear picture in mind, and organically coordinate with the following methods. Next, use watering to control the flowering period of Cymbidium faberi: after the Spring Festival each year, due to the northward shift of the South High subtropical ridge, a period of sudden warmth will appear across the country. If we still follow conventional management methods and water as soon as the pot is dry, then the flower buds will shoot up their stems rapidly, growing about 1 cm in 1 day, and even the gods cannot stop the trend of early blooming. On the contrary, when a warm current arrives, stopping watering to suppress the flower buds' stem elongation can indeed effectively control the speed of flower bud stem elongation. In warm spring weather, I once did not water for as long as 18 days, and clearly measured the slow growth of the flower buds, growing only 2 mm in 1 day. Finally, there is one more trick: according to the condition of each pot of Cymbidium faberi, control flowering by tailoring measures to each plant. Everyone knows: Cymbidium faberi has early-flowering types and late-flowering types, and the differences among varieties are also very great. If several pots of Cymbidium faberi have especially fast stem elongation and bud arrangement, then immediately move them to the back balcony or indoors, placing them in a place with little or no sunlight, which will also delay the opening of Cymbidium faberi. In short, by observing carefully and practicing meticulously, and giving full play to subjective initiative, the goal of controlling Cymbidium faberi flowering can be achieved. In the year before last and last year, I smoothly controlled the flowering period of Cymbidium faberi. What is especially interesting is that for two consecutive years, Shanghai Mei and Guanding both opened on schedule on the eve of the exhibition setup. President Dai and Secretary-General Xiao Sun of our Nantong can testify. Because when they came to collect the flowers that afternoon the day before, they had not yet opened. At night they were placed at President Dai's home, and in the early morning of the next day the flower buds opened, beautiful enough to feast the eyes, with charming petal shapes. This year's flowering control should be handled with ease. If there are no accidents, they will surely open perfectly on the eve of the Jintan Cymbidium faberi exhibition.

Text/xianger