How to make flower stems taller? March Stone shares his own understanding

On how to make flower stems taller, sharing my own understanding - March Stone

http://www.dfac.cc/showtopic-116-410288-0-0-1.htm

I started in 2007growing orchids, so I have not been doing it long and do not have much experience. What I say may be somewhat biased, so please forgive me.

From 2007 to 2009, I always greworchids on the balcony. After moving to the first floor in 2010, I set up an 8 sq m orchid room in the small courtyard. I will talk about my understanding of how to make flower stems taller.

First, I think the biggest influence on flower stems is temperature, followed by humidity. Flower buds are most sensitive to temperature.

If you want to make flower stems taller, the temperature cannot 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 tend to grow taller more easily. Once the temperature is too high, the flower buds rush to open for spring and open as soon as they emerge from the bud sheaths. Many orchid growers have short flower stems on balconies. I think this is because when the balcony is closed up, once the sun comes out, the temperature is sometimes too high, which is too much of a stimulus to the flower buds and makes them open early. (On my former balcony for growing orchids, on sunny winter days with the window closed, the temperature was over 20°C.)

Before Spring Festival, I forced a pot of Song Mei. After the flower bud had completed vernalization and before it had moved, I placed 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 between the balcony and the room, and the room has heating). Through this experiment, the flower stems were still acceptable

Please see the picture:

Later, because the temperature was quite high for a while, the temperature in the orchid room rose quickly (the orchid room had light from about 10 am to about 3 pm). When the temperature exceeded 20°C, I opened the orchid room window for ventilation

Several pots opened. The pictures below were all taken on the second day after opening. They could still grow taller. Overall, the flower stems were not considered short:

(The one below was photographed a few days after opening)

2. Next is the humidity issue. High humidity is naturally beneficial for making stems taller, but it is not as influential as temperature. In two different humidity environments, on the balcony and in the orchid room, the flower stems opened to about the same height. The main thing is still temperature control. It cannot rise too fast; the flower buds must be allowed to open slowly. In addition, I think that when making stems taller, watering once thoroughly is more beneficial for making the stems taller.

3. Light issue. I do not think that shading or exposure to the sun has a direct stimulating effect on making stems 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 lower.