Hi sue. what kind of lycaste is it? What are your conditions? Did you stop watering allvtogether in Oct? That is a little too soon. The plant takes some months to go down into dormancy. Water is tapered back through the fall and eliminated at the holidays for many decidous lycastes. Some lycastes are not deciduous and do not loose their leaves. The dormancy is not for a long time either. a month or 2 depending on what you have. Depending on what you have you may start giving them a little bit of water and gradually pick up the watering schedule

Better to know what you have and conditions before we speculate though.

Clara

hello, Clara, it is a lycaste skinneri. it is now 24" under 2 full spectrum florescent tubes @ 32watts each & 48" long. near one end of the tube a 42W CFL and the other end a 27w CFL. i mist the air above the plants every couple of days and it sits on a humidity tray. it is in my basement and the temp is 60F. it is potted in spag. do you need any other info. thanks: you are always so quick to help: you have no idea how much i appreciate that.
sue

Sue - Skinneri is not deciduous Lycaste :-(( It does not require dormancy.It will not loose it's leaves like a deiduous lycatse. A little water reduction is ok. A water cut off is not for skinneri. That's why you aren't getting drop. Some lycastes will hold their leaves for almost 2 years. Your light is great! Nice! OK, the temps are also low. They are best grow above 70 day and drop at night to mid 50's. That is conservative. The lights should be producing sufficient heat. Humidity trays are not very effective so you need to pick up the watering. What I suggest is this:

Its ok Sue. This is what I would do: Slowly pick up the watering schedule on the skinneri. Little sips, then start to dial up the day temps. The best info you can get is the Baker's culture sheets. They are about 1$ a piece and well worth it Link is below.

How do the bulbs look? if they are plump you should be allright. Just try not to shock it as you bring it around.

Here is a link that might be useful: Baker's

hello, Clara, the bulbs are same as before. the old ones a slightly wrinkled which is the way they were when i bought the plant in the spring this year but the ones with leaves are green and plump. thanks.
sue

littlem - the link Clara posted doesn't work so I looked it up on OrchidWiz for you. Winter temps 67-46 - rainfall is reduced in the winter to about once a week but still moisture from dew and mist - the way they phrase it is winter is a dry-er time but the plant should never dry out. They also recommend higher light in winter with summer recommendations of 1800-2500 fc, no direct sun on leaves. For nine months of active growth, heavy water and fertilizer. I could find anything about deciduous/non-deciduous - I just use the guideline, if it's green, it's feeding the roots.

Hope this helps and look forward to pics soon.

Brooke

My typing leaves much to be desired sometimes, sorry sue

Link below

Here is a link that might be useful: Baker's Link Ammended

hello, Brooke, thanks. I googled to find more info also and I did not see anything about deciduous/non-d. - on coelogynes, it is the same thing. i guess that is why i rely more heavily on the advice i am getting from this forum than from cultural info i get from the web. i usually look at Jay's, AOS and some vendors post cultural notes too. thanks again.
sue

hello, Clara, thanks. that is OK. I googled and I did find it. i do find their sheets a little difficult to understand. i guess i need more practice in reading them. thanks, again.
sue

Brooke--thank you for the culture info on Lyc skinneri. Your post is "to the point" re: temps at this time of year. I needed the info!

ALSO, a special thanks to you for the recommendation of Picture Trail. Even an idiot like me handled it! I posted my first foto on another forum earlier this evening.

Now, if only I can refine my technique.....it will probably be in time to post a pic of the Lyc cruenta--up to 8 buds now--in flower, hopefully by New Years! That is exactly the same as the flower count from SBOE last December. THAT is reassuring!

--Stitz--

Great growing Stitz - big ole high five on culture!

Isn't Picture Trail easy! I tried both the Bucket and PT and knew if I could do it, anyone could do it. Now I want pictures.

Do you have any evergreen lycaste? The evergreen are supposed to have spiney p-bulbs and deciduous smooth. In my minds eye, spiney brings images of a cactus. Pictures rather than words would help me understand the difference.

Brooke

Brooke,

You have the "spiney p-bulbs" reversed. The deciduous are the ones with spines.

The sharpness is specific to the species. Some are quite sharp and capable of causing serious skin damage to the unaware.

The most famous of the spined species is Lycaste macrobulbon. Pit viper snakes are known to use the plants as part of their nests. See IOSPE: http://www.orchidspecies.com/lycmacrobulbon.htm

I have Lyc macrobulbon as well as aromatica and cruenta which are also deciduous and have spines. Macrobulbon clearly has the most obvious spines.

Some of the non-deciduous should not be ignored while handling. While not "equipped" with obvious spines, they are still capable of damaging the careless orchidist's fingers!

--Stitz--

Stitz - I never get confused - NOT. It's one reason I have to check on the plants in the g/h before posting something.

BUT I have a small Lyc. macrobulbon and I have zero spines on mine. It has six bulbs, four were leafless when I got it (and fairly small) one just lost a leaf and one with a leaves getting the dried tips on it. Why am I spineless?

I have an aromatica x cruenta cross and again, I am spineless.

On the brighter side of being spineless, my Lyc. Schoalhaven has a tiny spike appearing :>) I just found it this a.m. searching for spines. This is a hybrid that is 3/4 skinneri and sitting here, I've already forgotten the number of bulbs it has - four I think.

With my luck the macro is mis-tag and I will have another NOID but if pretty, I won't care.

Brooke

Note to self - reverse spiney bulb knowledge and try to remember it this time. THANKS STITZ!

Sue My computer is out for service. When it returns I will send you a few links that I have bookmarked. Page 292 in Taylor's Guide taks about skinneri and states it is a non-deciduous Lycaste. Gives some other details. If you have that book, take a look.

The bakers can be confusing. Its the best data available. You kind have to get used to it and spend some time with the data. Its a lot of information about the habitat of the plant. If you use the temps as a guide you can keep the plant on track. The rainfall in situ- I use that information to see when or if the plant needs a reduction or elimination of water. If you look at in proportionate terms it may be easier. Chuck details the rest periods of each plant. The AOS culture sheets don't give an outline of rest but of very general culture. Jay;s site can also be really confusing and often inacurrate. For example, a cym may be classified as a cool grower and is grown at very high day temps in the summer. Sometimes he will say a cym is a "cool to hot grower". That is what he means. Its not the best place to get detailed culture info but you can see photos and bloom times and some vague basics. I use it as a photo library and to find out where the plant comes from. If I know where the plant comes from, I can understand what the requirements will be. Hope that helps

Clara

hello, Clara, thanks for the detailed info. Taylor's Guide is on my list to buy. bakers (the book) is in our library: the next time I go to a meeting I plan to borrow it so that i can take the time to study it more closely. the more i learn the more i want to know.
sue

Yesterday a very nice person sent me pics of the spines on lycaste pbulbs - I am no longer spineless, I do have them, just didn't recognize the way they actually grow.

Even better news on the lycaste that is 3/4 skinneri. I found another tiny spike appearing. These things are amazing, one spike at 10 a.m. and a second spike at 6:30 - talk about fast growers. I can't wait to compare bloom pics with you littlem when we finally get blooms!

Brooke

hello, Brooke, I am anxiously waiting for the blooms. it would be awesome to compare bloom pics. Clara has spikes too. i also hope that she will post pics of hers. if you still have those pics of the spines, can you post them? it would be educational to see what they look like. thanks for all your help.
sue

littlem,

from an earlier post in the thread:

The most famous of the spined species is Lycaste macrobulbon. Pit viper snakes are known to use the plants as part of their nests. See IOSPE: http://www.orchidspecies.com/lycmacrobulbon.htm

This specie's spines in the pic are as obvious as it gets.

--Stitz--

hello, Stitz, thanks for the link. i guess the spines are those things sticking up on top of the leafless bulbs; is that right? I am asking because I just checked my lycaste skinneri - it has those spikes. so maybe it was mislabelled?
sue

hello, stitz, i meant to say that my lycaste skinneri has those spines.
sue

sue I think it is Stitz that will have Christmas blooms on one of his hybrid lycaste. I think Clara had a Lyc. macro somethingorother and she put hers into a hard dormancy by withholding water and lost the buds - or my memory cell is failing again.

At 10:30 a.m. my second little spike was 1/4" tall now. Last night it appeared like a tiny green speck - impressive growth living in an area that stays 58 degrees over night.

Sorry to say now when I look at my spiney lycaste I see snakes coiled up. May have to rethink my lycaste fascination.

Brooke

hello, Brooke, i probably have failing brain cells. what is the daytime temp. that you have for your lycaste? mine at night it is 58-60F and daytime under the lights 66F. the spikes although started in oct. are still less than 2" long.
sue

Sue at least you have multiple brain cells, I'm down to one lone memory cell and when I learn something new, something old gets shoved out.

Could the difference in growth rate be because you stopped watering in Oct.? Mine might also slow down when they get older, don't know. My only lycaste that bloomed for me was in the spring - the others had blooms when I got them.

My temps - depends. The 58 is a constant for a low night time temp. Daytime temps are all over the ball park. If I have sun, the g/h can go up to 80 or above. When I have totally cloudy days, 62 is the high. In the last week, I have had two days of sun.

In the summer I can meet the demands of these cool growers but come winter I can't because I have too many plants that don't want to go below 60.

Brooke

hello, Brooke, you are probably right: i had put some water in a saucer under the pot and emptied the excess after allowing it to soak up as much as it wants. i hope i did not over do it. time will tell!!
sue

We will keep our fingers crossed to see if we are good guessers.

Brooke