I have observed with three of my Phals that are getting stronger light than
most, that the new spikes are directly under the leaves, and the new spikes
seem to follow the leaf beneath it to the very tip, as if they wanted to
hide or protect the new spike from the light as long as possible. Could this
be the reason? Has anyone else noticed this pattern? Is it indeed due to the
light being more there, or is it just a coincidence that these three happen
to be more in the light and happen to have the spikes like this? Just
curious.

FYI: these plants are quite healthy and are not showing any signs of
distress, and qhen I say 'more' light, I just mean more light than most of
the other Phals in my apartment, but even the 'more' light is at most medium
light, since most of my plants grow in low light conditions, and I can't
achieve high light levels with my current setup.

By the way if you have any other interesting observations about Phal spike
habits, feel free to share those in response to this thread as well.

Thanks,
Joanna