Rob's Closed Curtain Cymbidium Growing and Flowering Method

 

I had a few minutes of selfish brilliance when my 8 months long project slash research slash experiment had brought unexpected and exciting results.

Therefore I think it’s fair I called it Rob’s Closed Curtain Cymbidium Growing and Glowering method.

Yes, it is a mouthful, and a lot of people are going to rise their brows up or think – What is he going on about this time.

 

Well if you don’t like cymbidium orchids, or already have a greenhouse or just have your own way of growing them and flowering successfully then congratulations to you – you are welcome to skip this read.

For the purpose of my project slash experiment I have divided a super cheap cymbidium NoID hybrid that I never saw in flower and was a rescue from HomeBase. This plant was super neglected and sat in the garden patio for a whole year before – and within that time it didn’t grow a single new leaf.

So after dividing them, they went into self-watering pots and into sphagnum moss – now remember you can use different types of pots and media. For me these worked because I had these on my hand.

Now the most important element. I have placed those plants on a West facing window behind a closed curtain. The important part is this curtain stays closed all the time. Im sure everyone has a window like that if you live in a house.

Why is this important? Because this is a bright and enclosed space there will be a specific microclimate beneficial to the plants. And most importantly with a West facing window there will be a lot of temperature variation depending on the day which is absolutely fantastic and can stimulate the plants to grow better.

First of all both divisions grew a lot of new foliage, produced new shoots and bulbs. From around June I started using orchid fertilizer and every other week flush, and then a bit of normal garden plant fertilizer, and then flush again with water.

Beginning of July the smallest cymbidium division cracked a psudo-bulb and produced two flower spikes which are growing fast and nicely and in the same time it’s growing a side growth. Now the larger division has done the same at the beginning of August.

The thermometer has recorder temperature differences from 10 degrees Celsius between day and night to almost 30 degrees Celsius on very sunny and warm days.

 

I’m not making this up, because I love these darn plants and I never could grow them and since this worked I want to share this with everyone so they can also utilize this method. And if you want to share it around im happy for you to do it but always quote my name next to it.