Large inflorescences are located at the base of the peduncle. Each variety has a different number of flowers and can reach up to 80 pieces. The aroma can be described as soft and delicate.
The color palette can vary from delicate pastel tones to those painted in intricate patterns. The buds open gradually, the lateral and upper leaves appear first, and then the lip. The opening of the bud takes about a day. It is necessary to create a reliable support for the peduncle so that it does not break off under the weight of the blossoming buds. Usually the flowering period lasts for several months, which pleases the owners.
What speeds up the process of flower buds withering?
Can speed up the wilting process of buds various factors . One of them is the lack of consecration; professionals advise placing the plant on a well-consecrated windowsill. In this case, you should avoid direct sun rays.
Reference! Ideal option there will be artificial lighting, which will become a lifesaver on cloudy winter days.
Another reason is sudden changes in temperature, including being close to batteries and other heating systems. You should also monitor the watering schedule and insects that may unwittingly fly through the window and pollinate the flowers. Another reason may be insufficient or excessive air humidity.
How to distinguish natural shedding from sudden shedding?
The natural fall of orchid flowers can be easily distinguished from a sudden drop. The flowers that bloomed first are the first to die and fall off. When they fall from the peduncle, the flowers fall off in a chaotic manner. When purchasing, it is usually unknown when the flower began to bloom, so it is worth buying orchids with barely opened buds.
Why can they fade quickly?
Among the main reasons for the falling of buds are the following::
- Insufficient light.
- Overwatering or insufficient watering.
- Insufficient air humidity.
- Finding a flower in a draft.
- Sudden change in temperature.
- Changing the place where the plant stands.
- Diseases or pests.
- Being close to fruits and vegetables that are a source of ethylene (apples, bananas and others).
What remedies can help?
To solve many problems associated with orchid flowering, you can solve them by moving the flower, finding the ideal light source and avoiding drafts. But the problem can also be solved with chemical additives or folk remedies.
Chemical additives
Chemical additives should be used when the plant suffers from various pests, including the mealybug, which sucks the juices from flowers and buds, causing them to wither. In this case, insects are removed with a soap solution, and then the affected areas are treated with any insecticide. After treatment, all remaining insects die.
The plant must be immediately isolated from other plantings and all plants must be inspected for insects.
Folk remedies
Insecticides can be replaced folk remedy, which can be prepared at home. Pour boiling water over 5 cloves of garlic, about half a liter. Leave for at least five hours. And after using the resulting mixture with a moistened brush, we treat everything from the leaves to the buds. We leave the resulting tincture; the plant must be treated every three to four days, observing the condition of the flower daily.
What to do when the plant drops its buds?
What to do if the orchid’s flowers begin to fade or all of them suddenly fall off? The reasons for the fall of opened and just beginning buds are the same. First, it is necessary to determine the main reason why both blooming and unopened buds may fall off, which must be dealt with in order to return the plant to its previous flowering. And then carefully monitor the general condition of the flower.
How to care for the plant further?
It is worth paying attention to the conditions in which the orchid is kept, this includes indicators such as.
Captures the hearts of even those who are almost indifferent to indoor flowers. This plant not only decorates ordinary window sills in rooms, but is also often used in designer interiors thanks to a wide range of shades of delicate petals.
However, the capricious flower requires proper care, and novice gardeners often have a question: why does an orchid drop its flowers, and how to save them? You need to figure out which variety of orchids is easier for beginners to grow, and how to properly care for them.
Most often in room conditions Hybrid varieties are grown: they are more adapted to life in an apartment, and it is easier for them to provide a suitable environment for long life and flowering. Some varieties are capable of flowering all year round: flower stalks replace each other, and the plant, with proper care, constantly pleases the owner with beautiful buds.
We can list several of the most common representatives of the Orchid family:
- Phalaenopsis is a familiar orchid with elongated dark green leaves and curved peduncles. Phalaenopsis, with sufficient sunlight and a comfortable temperature in the room, can bloom all year round; this is one of the most convenient hybrids to grow.
- Oncidium is a light-loving variety with large buds, the shape of which resembles butterflies. Hybrid varieties of orchids are usually grown indoors because they require less sunlight.
- Miltonia - amazing beautiful view orchids, which are often grown in greenhouses. Miltonias have a curved stem and large flowers, the diameter of which reaches 8 cm. Externally, the buds resemble pansies due to unusual coloring. This is a rather capricious flower; it is often grown by orchid breeders.
- Cymbidium. In nature, these are large orchids and with large buds and narrow bright leaves. Miniature hybrid varieties are often grown in rooms. Their advantages are unpretentiousness and long flowering; each flower can live up to 12 weeks.
These are just some of the varieties that can be found both in greenhouses and winter gardens, and in ordinary apartments. Beginning flower growers need to understand the optimal watering and lighting conditions. To provide the orchid good conditions for flowering.
Indoor orchids usually live from 7 to 15 years, and natural aging is one of the common reasons for the cessation of flowering even under good conditions. Normally, an orchid blooms for about 4 months, after which there is a break in flowering for 2-3 months, and then a new peduncle appears. Problems with flowering in young orchids can occur for a number of reasons:
- Hypothermia. If the flower was purchased in a store in winter, its flowers may fall off after transportation if proper multi-layer packaging is not taken care of. Cold air in the room, drafts from the window - all this leads to the plant losing blooming and unblooming buds.
- Overheated and too dry air. The orchid will have to be protected from direct sunlight, and in winter it should not stand on the windowsill, under which there is a hot radiator. As a last resort, the plant should be sprayed regularly, and a container of water should be kept near it at all times.
- Lack of light. All orchids belong to light-loving plants, and the fall of orchid flowers is often observed in autumn and winter, when daylight hours are reduced. To avoid this, you need to provide the flower additional lighting, the duration of daylight should be at least 12 hours.
- Improper watering is one of the most common reasons; novice gardeners often overwater the plant, which is why its roots begin to rot. If some of the roots have been lost, the orchid will stop blooming and will take several months to recover.
- Another reason for problems with flowering is stress. - a real princess of the flower world: she does not like being near nuts and bouquets of fading flowers should not be left near the pot. In addition, she does not like rearranging from room to room, so you need to choose one for her permanent place with enough light and no drafts. Violation of these conditions creates a stressful situation for the plant, which leads to the loss of buds.
Is it possible to provide such a capricious flower suitable conditions for flowering in an apartment? Yes, and it is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. Hybrid varieties are much less demanding in terms of growth conditions, like their ancestors, and they can easily find a suitable place.
Any orchid loves light, and they love to be on eastern windowsills.
Direct sunlight is undesirable, as it can cause leaf burns. Orchids should not be placed under air conditioners or open windows; these plants are sensitive to drafts. It is best to find a spacious window sill for it, where other plants will not block the sunlight, lush flowering will make it a real decoration of the room.
It is equally important to provide the orchid with proper watering. Its frequency depends on the characteristics of the soil. However, there is one important requirement: the orchid is watered only after the earthen clod has completely dried out. There are several ways to determine when it is time to water:
- Pay attention to the weight of the pot. Experienced gardeners are good at distinguishing by weight whether the soil has completely dried out or is still moist.
- When growing in a transparent pot, pay attention to the color of the roots. If they have a bright green tint, then it is too early to water the plant. And if they become light, it’s time.
- Dip a wooden skewer into the soil in the pot and leave it in the ground for half an hour: if it becomes damp, the soil does not need to be watered yet.
- If an orchid grows in a transparent plastic pot, look at its walls: when the soil dries completely, condensation stops accumulating on them, and the soil itself becomes light. This indicates that it is time to water.
- Never water the orchid cold water from the tap: this creates a stressful situation for the plant, and it may begin to drop flowers, optimal solution for irrigation - settled or filtered water room temperature, and you need to defend it for at least a day.
Besides proper watering orchids, you need to take care of caring for the roots and leaves. If the plant produces new aerial roots and they penetrate outside the pot, they do not need to be covered with soil. Old roots can only be cut after they have turned brown; they are cut back to the young green part. If the leaves become flabby, this indicates a disease of the root system, and the plant needs to be replanted. Leaves need to be wiped regularly and protected from dust.
The most common disease among Orchids is different kinds rot:
- Gray rot most often affects young leaves; the disease manifests itself as large brown spots. It occurs due to low air temperature and excessive watering: the plant must constantly be in warm room, and it cannot be filled.
- Black rot appears as dark spots on the stem. At the very beginning of the disease, the plant can still be saved: the affected areas are cut off with a knife, and the cut area must be sprinkled charcoal. If there are too many spots, the affected orchid cannot be saved and will have to be destroyed to prevent the spread of the disease.
- Brown rot is manifested by browning of leaves and rotting of roots, which contributes to the spread of the disease heat air and excess humidity. The best prevention is to keep the plant in comfortable conditions. And its transplantation into healthy, disinfected soil.
It often leads to impaired flowering - this disease first manifests itself as a white coating on the leaves, and then they begin to quickly dry out and fall off. To combat powdery mildew, a solution of colloidal sulfur is used, you can also use the drug Topsin-M.
To prevent powdery mildew, you must avoid excess humidity indoors.
Although it is a capricious flower, it is not so difficult for it to provide good conditions for growth and development. Taking care of the plant will allow it to constantly bloom and delight the owner with magnificent multi-colored buds.
More information can be found in the video:
Sometimes the owners of tropical beauties encounter an unexpected problem: the buds of an orchid fall off. At first glance, there can be no reason for the buds to fall off. But there is probably some unaccounted factor. Perhaps there was a draft in the apartment, which orchids do not like. We left for work on a cloudy morning and did not shade the flower, but in the afternoon the sun appeared and the plant overheated.
Reasons why orchids lose buds
An orchid has many reasons to begin to shed buds, and sometimes already blooming flowers. Several reasons why orchid buds wither:
- humidity in the room is uncomfortable for the plant. Typically too low;
- draft;
- lack of lighting;
- improper watering;
- disturbed temperature regime;
- overfeeding with fertilizers;
- stress from changing living conditions;
- natural aging processes.
If suddenly an orchid has dropped all its flowers, first of all you need to exclude the above factors, except aging. When aging, the plant is unable to “drive out” the flowers.
Low humidity
Orchid is a tropical plant that blooms during the rainy season. This is especially true for plants growing in tropical rainforests. Comfortable humidity for humans is 40–70%. If the orchid agrees with 70%, then 40% is too little for it. Although even 70% may not be enough for some species. With at least 60% air humidity during the dry season, Mediterranean terrestrial orchids experience a dormant period.
If there is insufficient humidity, the orchid's flowers may fall off. In this case, you will have to create a special microclimate for it. You can regularly spray the plant with a spray bottle or place a container of water next to the pot. To make sure that everything is in order with humidity, you can use a hygrometer. If everything is fine with humidity, then you need to look for another reason.
Violation of the watering regime
A very common mistake of novice orchid growers. Typically, plants suffer from drought rather than drought during the flowering period. With too much water, the orchid's roots suffocate from lack of oxygen and begin to rot, ceasing to supply nutrients to the flowers. The orchid sheds its flowers, trying to remain viable. The scarcity of watering is the other side of the coin. In this case, wilting begins at the top and the flowers and buds dry first.
Lack of lighting
This problem usually occurs in autumn winter period. If a plant decides to bloom at this particular time, then usually only one flower blooms, and the remaining buds fall off without opening. The main reason why buds fall off is precisely the lack of sun at this time of year. You can prevent the buds from wilting if you use the phytolamp in time. When a developing peduncle is detected, the plant needs to artificially lengthen daylight hours. The minimum daylight hours for an orchid should be at least 12 hours. In winter, this is only possible with artificial lighting.
Temperature violation
Orchids do not like too much heat or cold. One of the reasons why an orchid’s flowers fall off, not taken into account by a novice orchid grower, is the purchase of a plant in winter time. If at subzero or close to 0 temperatures the plant is not insulated during transportation, it may freeze. This moment is not immediately visible and the person may think that everything is in order. But a little later, the plant’s flowers begin to fall off.
An orchid can freeze even in the summer, with the air conditioner running. This is another often overlooked factor. Therefore, the plant should be removed from direct flows of cold air.
The opposite option is overheating, an even less taken into account factor. In winter, proximity to a heating radiator may be the reason why orchids' flowers fall off. These tropical plants In general, they do not tolerate proximity to any source of heat. In addition, heaters also dry the air, so two factors can coincide at once: overheating and low humidity.
Direct sunlight, which also causes overheating, is also harmful to orchids. When exposed to sunlight for a long time, the plant gets burned. Burnt buds turn yellow and dry out. In these cases, it is recommended to shade the flower. But sometimes even shading does not help, and it is better to move the orchid away from direct sunlight.
In general, these plants tolerate temperatures below +15 °C and above +30 °C equally poorly. In the first case, the orchids freeze, in the second they bloom very quickly, in a third of the usual time. Overheating is “a little better,” since the effect of the cold is almost immediate. To overheat, the high temperature must last for 3 days. The old flowers fall off first, and a day later the buds die. They don't even bloom, they immediately dry out and fall off.
Drafts
Often this is one of the options for hypothermia. Orchids need Fresh air and ventilation of the room in which they grow. But you cannot create a draft to quickly ventilate the room. Especially during the cold season. Cold air rushing through the rooms, even in a short time, can overcool the orchids and they will drop all their flowers.
Stress from changing conditions
This is also one of the reasons why an orchid suddenly drops its flowers. Plants do not like to be moved from place to place. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s moving plants from a store to home, or from one apartment to another. In the second case, the chances of flowers falling off are even higher than when moving a flower from a store to home. And in this case nothing can be done. Unless you remove the “culprit” and wait for the orchid to bloom again.
Aging
At home, the natural lifespan of orchids is reduced by a third. And this is often the reason why orchid buds fall off. The plant tries to bloom until the very end of its life, but it no longer has the strength to plant and force flowers normally. Therefore, usually the old orchid expels the peduncle, forms buds, and that’s all. The flower itself can no longer bloom. The buds dry out and fall off without blooming. Therefore, if all the conditions for keeping the orchid are met, you need to remember how old it is. Perhaps in this case, it will become clear why the buds dry out.
Additional reasons
In addition to the reasons listed, orchid flowers may fall off due to sunburn, fungal diseases and the appearance of. Drops of water left on flowers during careless watering can act as lenses and contribute to the occurrence of sunburn. Due to the burns, the flowers dry out and fall off. The only thing you can do in this case is to be more careful. Damaged flowers cannot be helped.
Gray rot
Appears when containment conditions are not met. It can appear on any part of the plant. Looks like a gray coating on flowers, leaves or stems. The best prevention is strict control over growing conditions. If fungus appears, you will have to apply a fungicide.
Mealybug
If the leaves turn yellow, the orchid may have a scale insect. The foliage suffers first, then the flowers fall. To prevent the appearance of the orchid, you should not overfeed nitrogen fertilizer. If the scale appears, it is removed manually.
Ecology of life: Estate. Are the orchid's flowers and buds falling off? This is a very common problem among orchid lovers. There can be many reasons.
This is a very common problem among orchid lovers. The reason may be:
- stressful state,
- sudden change in living conditions (for example, moving),
- insufficient lighting,
- overheating or hypothermia, that is, too hot or, conversely, too cold,
- drafts,
- wrong watering mode,
- low air humidity.
Correctly chosen lighting is the key to the success of growing any type of orchid, and if it is not enough, then the orchid can dry out not only the flowers and buds, but also begin to fade completely. The dark season in general is a significant obstacle in the growing process and in relation to the flowering of orchids in particular. Therefore, you should move the orchid to a more illuminated place or provide additional lighting (for example, from November to March) with fluorescent lamps.
Avoid overheating (in summer period) from direct sunlight, because of which there may be cases of burning of flowers and buds (their withering and drying out), but also leaves. The roots in the pot stop absorbing the moisture necessary for the normal functioning of the orchid and dehydration occurs. A jet of hot air coming from heating systems It can also dry out not only the flowers themselves, but also the buds that have not yet blossomed.
The air is too dry provokes drying out of the delicate tissues of flowers and buds that have not yet blossomed, so in no case should you lower the air humidity near orchids.
With insufficient watering, the orchid regularly dries out. If it is excessive, it is kept too humid. An incorrectly chosen watering regime can cause damage to the root system, which can either begin to rot or begin to dry out.
Hypothermia may occur as a result of incorrectly chosen temperature regime or when transporting a plant from a store in winter. When ventilating a room (especially in winter), care must be taken to so that orchids do not stand in the way of cold air, this is fraught with hypothermia not only of flowers and buds, but also of plants in general.
And of course, the natural aging process. The total duration of flowering of an orchid directly depends on the type, its condition, the total number of flowers, and the conditions of its maintenance. For some species, only flowering is considered normal. 7-10 days, For others - 3 or more months. When purchasing a new orchid in a store with a fully blossomed peduncle, you are unlikely to be able to find out exactly how long it has been blooming, therefore, the sudden falling of flowers most likely refers to the end of their life span, rather than caused by any other factor.
The orchid was pollinated by wasps, bees, flies, etc. If the pollination process was successful, then a seed pod will eventually appear in place of the fading flower, but if not, the flower will wither and fall off.
