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| Hi all, im a recent convert to orchids and so far enjoying moderate success with them. I have 2 phals that are posing a bit of a challenge to me. Phal 1 i bought last winter. It grew a secondary spike but afterwards stopped flowering. Instead, it grew 2 maybe even 3 new leaves that are HUGE (much larger than its old leaves), and TONS of roots! I fertlised it every other week with standard orchid feed diluted and it gets plenty of sunlight. Te plant looks very healthy, in fact it looks like its crawling out of its tiny pot. But no spikes!
Phal 2: i bought it in late spring. Same treatment as phal 1 in terms of care. It grew a new leaf but that new leaf is half the size of the old leaves, as if it stopped growing. Again, plant looks healthy, leaves are a nice green. Over summer, i chucked my oncidium and dendrobium nobile outside and brought them indoors the night before the first frost. Both are now about to flower, spiking. I left all my phals indoors though. My question is, do phals need the temp change to flower (i have a 3rd phal that has no trouble flowering and its been indoors all year round), and are my 2 phals not flowering becos they did not receivethe temp change? Also, is it possible for phals to receive too much sunlight such that it inhibits their flowering? My phals get plenty of sunlight. Pls excuse my long email but really puzzled why i managed to get other more challenging orchids to rebloom, but seem to have failed at these 2 phals! Thanks for any help! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Have a look at the pic. in the other Phal. post down the page a tiny bit. Those phals are grown by a specialist Phal. grower with a glass-house just set for them. He lets the autumn night temps drop so he has spring blooms. There is a spring blooming peak but some will bloom at other times during the year maybe due to the various species used to make up the hybrids. This subject is covered in detail in an FAQ on the Subject. I've put it in the link. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Phal blooming FAQ
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| Thanks! That link was very useful. Im still a little puzzled becos the temp in my house is approx 22 degrees celsius- well below the 82 f that he mentioned. Ive just shifted the 2 phals to another part of the house where the paph is. Theres less light so let's see... ! |
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| Sorry, I'm not much help on this because although i grow my small collection of Phals inside the house it is not centrally heated so the plants get the drop in winter night temperature to about 12C without any special effort on my part. Hopefully someone from Northern USA will add to this. |
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| My phals are indoors year 'round, with no noticeable temp drop. A couple of them are in bloom and/or spike at any given time, so I'm not inclined to buy the temp drop theory--at my house, anyway. No two of my phals are the same hybrid; I'm more inclined to think that each blooms at the right time(s) for that particular hybrid. I think it's the light. They get natural light all day and artificial light (not grow lights) from dark till 11:00 p.m. or so. Some bloom 2x/year, most bloom with multiple spikes and re-blooming on spike branches. I like to think using Superthrive is helpful. If you're getting healthy growth but no spiking, maybe you're overfertilizing? |
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| Thanks Elvis. Like you, i was not convinced that Phals needed temp drops like other orchids as I have one phal that's been in bloom/spiking all year round since i bought it. But the others havent quite done the same. I have been fertilising with reduced strength every other week. Perhaps its been too much? Also, one of them was potted in a tiny tiny pot in spagnum moss. It's been a year. I think the moss has pretty much deteriorated and the orchid is now growing tons of roots crawling outside the pot. I know orchids like to be under potted, but i have a feeling that this is just too much. Do you know if underpotting prevents flowering? thanks again! (have uploaded a picture but not sure it comes out right...) |
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| I think its more of a light issue rather than a temperature issue. My phals are always in the house with not a lot of variation of temperature. So ive always thought spiking occurs when daylight hours decrease. Hey but thats just me. I little advice RE tinkering with your plants. It could be you keep moving your plants. The less you move a plant, the more energy it has to bloom. Even if you move your plant say 15 degrees in any direction, your plant has to use valuable energy to move toward the light source. I started using teak baskets with moss for all my phals, one because they love grabbing the wood and 2 if i move the plant to water it, i always know the exact direction of the plant to the window |
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| Here is what i wrote way back in 2004. I am talking about "phals" that would get more of a seasonal difference in temp than those grown indoors all year in colder climates. Also, I do not muck around with re-bloomed spikes. If the plant has given you blooms for a couple of months, it deserves a rest and time to grow new leaves. As for roots outside a pot, not a worry, though some growers think that they do better in clear pots where the roots do not wander so much. "Posted by: ArthurM NSW AUST (My Page) on Sun, Aug 1, 04 at 17:59 There is a little problem in that most of the above relates to spring flowering Phalaenopsis. Add Doritis to the equation and i'm not sure what will happen. Perhaps this is why I've had so much trouble getting Doritaenopsis Tamara to rebloom though I found the start of flowering spike the other day and where it is sitting on the windowsill has been down to 12C. This autumn flowering trigger must relate to one of the species that appears in the ancestry of most modern hybrids...But there are some that initiate flowering in early spring such as the large white that I auctioned at our last OS meeting purely because it grew enormous leaves and outgrew its welcome. Flowered December so counting back 110 days spike would have started about late August (Spring Here). Phal amablis is in flower now so flowering was initiated when it was still warm. Doritis pulcherrima flowers summer as does Phal. violacea so expect different behaviour from primary hybrids." |
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