The Cymbidiums are starting to pop.

As the title indicates, I have some Cymbidiums that are starting to bloom. Here is the first. I was given this plant as a "back bulb", meaning that it had no roots, no leaves, no nuthin'. I put it in a pot of LECA (lightweight expanded clay aggregate), and after several months it decided to start growing. It has been three or so years from that point to today. The plant summers on my deck, under a burlap awing, to avoid burning the foliage. Once temperatures drop to around 40 F outside, it moves into the basement under an 800 watt high intensity light fixture with both metal halide (MH) and high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps.

I've had a lot of trouble with bud-blast, where the buds turn yellow and drop off without opening. My current theory is that I have been keeping the plants too wet, causing the buds to start to rot while still "in sheath". I've been able to save some, by quickly removing the bad ones, and dusting the cut with copper sulphate fungicide.

I was able to save four blooms on this plant, three of which have opened fully, and one which is still thinking about it.

Here are the three sisters. They grew in a very symmetrical and pretty arrangement:


Here is a close-up of the central bloom, illuminated rather moodily by an LED flashlight, of all things:

Replate or not?

I was wondering whether replating was the right idea. I replated some of the orchid babies, and for a time, it seemed like the ones I left alone were doing a bit better. However, the tide has turned. Here, at the same scale, is a plant that was not replated, versus one that was. The replated plant is doing much better than the other.

Here is the one left on the mother media:


And here is the replated one. As you can see, it is much larger:


According to the manufacturer, the replate media has fertilizer components at about 2x that of the mother media. And the replate media adds powdered banana as well. Clearly, the orchids like the richer media. Lesson learned. I've transplanted the remaining babies onto replate media. We're going to have lots of very healthy orchids, at this rate.