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Bud Blast in Orchids
24K views
Sep 15, 2021
Not that orchids are a lot of work or high maintenance, but all the investment you’ve done in proper care is now going to pay off. From the blue, the first orchid bud turns yellow, shrivels up, dies, and falls off. Not only does it stop growing, but it just gives up on life—without any signals. No warning signs, no hints demanding changes, nothing… Then the second orchid bud wilts, dying without reason. In panic, you don’t know what to do. This is called bud blast. What causes bud blast in orchids? In this video, I'm going go explain the reasons for budblast and how to prevent it.
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0:00
One of the best things about orchid care is not really when you bring home that first orchid
0:06
It's actually when you get that orchid to re-bloom under your care
0:11
One of the worst things that can happen at this state is what we call a bud blast
0:17
Because you've kept this orchid alive and healthy all year long. You've provided it with great care
0:23
It's doing wonderful under your care. And then all of a sudden, right before it opens, these little buds will shrivel up
0:31
They'll turn a darker color, no matter some are green, some are purple. If they're green, they'll turn darker green, more towards a brown
0:38
If they're pink, they'll turn a purpley color. And then they'll just wilt and drop off
0:45
This is what we call bud blast. And in this video, I'm going to give you reasons why that happens
0:51
and unfortunately there's nothing to do after it happens to to recuperate it back to health
0:58
You've lost that but there are things you can do in the future to prevent this from happening again
1:08
Hi I'm Amanda Matthews and thank you for watching this video here with me at Orchidaria. Now I'll
1:14
tell you the why this happens first before I go into the reasons because when you understand the
1:19
cause the reactions are easily identified. So the cause of bud blast is put my little
1:28
I have to hold an orchid because if not I do all these kinds of hand movements and I get very distracted so I have to hold an orchid
1:37
Oh gosh. What causes bud blast is an extreme change in the environment at a quick rate
1:44
Something happened drastically. It didn't occur over time because after all, your orchid was fine and healthy enough to
1:53
produce that flower spike. It had enough energy and water and nutrients and sunlight to produce that entire spike
2:02
And it was healthy, but all of a sudden the orchid like changed its mind
2:06
I know these aren't terms that orchid actually does, but the orchid decided that it would
2:12
be too costly for the entire plant to maintain this bud. Now the blossom on the orchid is what
2:20
really uses up all that energy to produce this flower spike, to keep this bud open, to produce
2:26
those seeds, to attract this pollinator, to produce this scent. All of these things are extremely high
2:33
energy demanding. The orchid will sense to keep this bud alive I'm going to have to invest so much
2:39
energy and under these circumstances that just changed drastically all of a sudden, I can't keep
2:46
this bud open. I'm going to sacrifice the bud to keep the plant alive. That's how, that's the
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reasoning behind the blood blast. Now what happened drastically in your care that caused this bud to
3:00
blast? That's where we go digging for the answers. The first reason is a chemical imbalance in the
3:07
environment. Now by a chemical imbalance, I mean things like if we just painted a room and we got
3:14
all excited and put our furniture up in there and then we put our orchids in there and the room is
3:20
just beautiful ready to go maybe the paint is a little still a little bit wet to the touch Well that paint smell is actually the chemicals and to the plant they can be extremely toxic Paint isn the only reason this occurs This also can occur like in a bathroom If you use a lot of hairspray if you use
3:41
acetone to clean your fingernail polish off, if you have perfume that is very strong or even light
3:49
perfumes, they can have chemicals that are toxic to the plant. The second and most common reason
3:56
for Bud Blast is a temperature change. When I mean temperature change, I'm not talking about the
4:01
morning to night change where it should drop about 10 degrees, either Celsius or Fahrenheit
4:07
but I'm talking about a drastic temperature change. Like you move this orchid to a place
4:12
where you thought was beautiful in your living room, but right next to it there is a heat vent
4:16
or an air conditioner vent and that dry air with extremely high temperatures, which is just
4:24
unnatural for the orchid will shock that orchid into thinking, I can't live here. I need to work
4:30
on some other method. I'm going to give up on the process of the blossoms and work this out until I
4:37
can sustain myself in this place. Another reason for a temperature drop is if you ordered your
4:44
orchids online in winter and in bud. Now that is very, very risky. I know we all get the winter
4:53
blue sometimes but try to restrain from ordering orchids online during winter because that transport
5:00
process first is probably going to be around a week depending on where you live inside a closed
5:07
box with no sun whatsoever no light and that takes a hit already the humidity some growers
5:16
um please growers don't do this they will soak the orchid they will over soak this media so it
5:24
doesn't dry out over time inside the transport but what you get out on the other side when you
5:30
unpack that is just horrible roots because they've been in this container where they can't have air
5:36
flow or they can't get rid of that extra water and that water just sits around the roots for the
5:42
entire week. And the orchid is not in active growth during this time because there's no sun
5:48
So it's not doing anything with the energy. It's just sitting there. If you have had luck opening
5:55
orchids when you got them in bud online, and then all of a sudden you get this orchid, poor little
6:01
orchid, it needs some light and you put it right on the shelf under the light directly. So the orchid
6:07
has now gone from total blackness to tons of light. Now I have to produce a sunscreen to protect
6:16
myself from all this light. So I can't keep the bud production and produce these what we call
6:22
purple spots, which is the natural sunscreen. And I think it's called anthocyanin. I have to check
6:29
that, but it's written down here. The orchid will always choose the leaves and roots over
6:36
the buds always because buds are temporary. They come and they go. Leaves are less temporary but
6:44
they are life-sustaining and roots. I mean they need those roots. So if the orchid senses any of
6:51
these changes around it and it a threat it will give up on this bud project entirely and wait till next year The third reason that orchids will blast their buds and this can also happen with blossoms A blossom can actually be open and then all of a sudden fall off but
7:12
that's not what this video is about. This video is about bud blast but the reasons are mainly the
7:17
same so they all apply. So the third reason is either over watering or under watering. If you're
7:24
overwatering all this water will pool up inside the orchid pot in the orchid media and your orchid
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is not being able to breathe so it's really really hurting can't give off this excess water
7:39
so the orchid is going to try to stabilize that situation first before it continues to keep these
7:48
buds open or continue to develop these buds so they're fully open. Another reason that orchids
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will blast is because all of a sudden they're not getting enough light or they're getting too much
8:02
light and this can go with light and heat also. For example in Catlia's case like these up here on
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the top shelf, not this one, like these from here over, they need more light than a phalaenopsis
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orchids do. And if they don't get that light, sometimes they can produce that pseudobulb and
8:24
then the leaf will open and then the sheath will start, but then all of a sudden it gives up
8:32
And it could be that it's getting enough light, but it's too much heat. So if your light system
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is producing heat along with light, maybe it might be a good idea to change out that light system to
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one that doesn't produce heat. Now if you want a video on, it's a little longer, but I explained
8:53
the differences between the types of light because just because I have one I'm not going to recommend
8:59
it. I want you to find one that fits your environment. So you can go to this video up here
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to check out light requirements. And some of these bulbs do produce quite a lot of heat
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and you're paying for that too. Let's say you have a phalaenosis
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and put it on a window that gets afternoon sun, but it's not the sun directly
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You've put it in a place where it's not getting direct sun rays. So you think, okay, I'm fine
9:24
But what about that heat? You know, keep a thermometer by it in the afternoon
9:29
to see how high that heat actually goes up to make sure that you're not baking your orchid. When I started this video
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I said there were only three reasons. Obviously, I can't count. The next reason, I don't know what reason this is, but number something, is the lack of humidity
9:51
Let's say your orchid was doing wonderful and fine and perfect, and then all of a sudden
9:58
your humidifier broke or you stopped misting but the humidity levels dropped. Now humidity is not
10:06
the same thing as watering. You can maintain your watering cycle perfect but if that humidity changes
10:13
the orchid will react in a negative way and this happens because the orchid bud uses a lot of water
10:23
It is almost like pure moisture inside each little bud, and it really needs all that moisture to keep it intact Now if the environment outside the bud is less than inside the bud naturally the environment will pull out that humidity from the bud Don stop what you
10:45
doing. Remember the buds blast because something drastic stopped and if you stopped misting or if
10:50
you stopped your humidifier or if you moved it to a place where the relative humidity is less
10:56
than where it was before, that bud cannot make it because it's fighting. First, it's using a lot of
11:03
energy to produce that bud, but then it's also fighting the relative humidity in the air that's
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just like, oh, this is a nice place to get humidity from. So the environment just pulls that out of it
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The next reason, way more than three, is that your orchid could have bugs and insects
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And the bud is the number one preference for insects because it's so tender
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It's so delicious, full of nutrients, full of water, full of moisture
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It's just a buffet for these little insects. I do say pests and insects, but be careful also with if your orchid is outside with squirrels
11:50
Now there are other pests too, and I don't want to call my cat a pest, but if you're inside
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be careful with household pets because this is a perfect little circle that is nice to
12:04
bat on and it just bobbles up and down. Perfect for cats to play with
12:09
Remember when I said that the orchid will blast because the conditions have changed
12:14
Well, think about this when you're repotting. The orchids need stability. In nature, it's going to be hanging on that tree for life
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It doesn't want to be repotted. It doesn't want to change the light. It doesn't want to change the humidity
12:29
It's there. It's there to stay. It's determined. But when we repot it, we disturb this whole process, the stability that it always had
12:40
So when you're repotting this orchid, that is also a big change in its environment
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And some orchids that are more sensitive to repotting, like Cymbidiums, that will really
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set them back a little bit. And it will take a few months to actually get used to this new potting media
13:00
us. That's why I don't recommend repotting when in bloom. Does it kill the orchid? No, it won't
13:08
kill the orchid. Some I have repotted and they did absolutely fine. It's just the orchid had
13:14
extra energy and was determined to make it through this bump in its life. But other orchids don't
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Other orchids are just struggling to survive the way it is. And if you repot it during this
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fragile time in its life, it will blast. If this video has provided any kind of useful information
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please give it a thumbs up. That just tells me what I can do more of or what I need to stay away
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from so I can make better videos for you in the future. I suggest two videos so you can identify
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better about your orchid care and one is light requirements, which I mentioned in the middle of
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the video. This other video is about humidity and if humidity trays work or not. And the button in
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the middle is if you haven't subscribed and you want. And I hope to see you in the comments below
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Happy cultivating
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