What should I do? I have a Phal that has only two leaves, and has not grown
any new ones in a while. The two remaining leaves are healthy enough, and
it's root system seems to be good enough as far as I can tell, but still
it's not one of my thriving ones for sure. This is the third time in a row
that this Phal has put out a spike. I cut off the spike the last two times,
trying to get it to concentrate on leaf growth instead. But now it has put
out a spike for the third time, and I am beginning to question my own
judgement.

Since the orchid seems to 'insist' upon spiking, should I let it spike after
all?

Should I try the keiki-grow paste? I bought this paste to apply to another
plant but wound up not using it on that one, since the spike was very
spindly and I did not see how I could strip a node effectively, even if it
had had a node that did not have a bud growing out of it (which it did not).

What would you do if it were your Phal?

Thanks for advice!

Joanna

This sounds like a test of wills to me. The plant wants flowers and you
want leaves. (99% of the time, it's the other way around.)
I would probably let it bloom if the leaves are truly healthy. Be ready
to cut it early if the leaves look stressed. There's nothing wrong with
cutting this spike too, if that's what you want to do.
I would advise against using keiki paste. Years ago when I used it on
some Phals, it seemed to stress the plants whether a keiki was produced
or not. Others may have a completely different experience.

Steve


J Fortuna wrote:
What should I do? I have a Phal that has only two leaves, and has not grown
any new ones in a while. The two remaining leaves are healthy enough, and
it's root system seems to be good enough as far as I can tell, but still
it's not one of my thriving ones for sure. This is the third time in a row
that this Phal has put out a spike. I cut off the spike the last two times,
trying to get it to concentrate on leaf growth instead. But now it has put
out a spike for the third time, and I am beginning to question my own
judgement.

Since the orchid seems to 'insist' upon spiking, should I let it spike after
all?

Should I try the keiki-grow paste? I bought this paste to apply to another
plant but wound up not using it on that one, since the spike was very
spindly and I did not see how I could strip a node effectively, even if it
had had a node that did not have a bud growing out of it (which it did not).

What would you do if it were your Phal?

Thanks for advice!

Joanna

"Steve" wrote in message
...
This sounds like a test of wills to me. The plant wants flowers and you
want leaves. (99% of the time, it's the other way around.)

Steve,

Ain't that the truth!

I've also got this Dtps that I just removed a yellow leaf off of, that has
19 healthy leaves remaining, one of which is brand new, but it has not
flowered since December 2003 (the initial flowering, so it has not
reflowered for me yet). Now what does this Dtps need 19 leaves for, when
most others are satisfied with fewer than half as many? Couldn't it be a
good 'chid and learn to share with those less fortunate than it (like the
aforementioned two-leaved one)?

One time I was summarizing for myself and my husband how many orchids we
have grouped by color, and I counted this at-the-time 20-leaved Dtps as one
of the 'greens', since that's the only color it seems capable of producing.
:-)

Joanna

Hi

It seem there is a contradiction here. It seems to me that if one plant
is not growing any further leaves, then the others shouldn't be growing
new leaves either. 20 leaves on a Phal is great, but I would be
inclined to look further into how you are trying to grow them. There
must be some cultural problem here that we cannot see. I would suspect
that you do not have enough of a temperature variation, but without
further info, this is just a guess.

I live in Western Australia and last year at an orchid show, an
American lady asked me for some advice. She said "My Phailianopsis
refuses to rebloom" I asked her where she was growing it and she said
"Pennsylvania". Which wasn't quite what I meant.

It turned out that she was attempting to grow her 'Phailianopsis' in an
apartment with central heating. Constant teperature = no flowers.

Tony

Tony,
Most of my Phals are doing very well in the same room by the same window,
and are growing leaves without any trouble whatsoever. It's definitely not
the temperature difference. The Dtps that is not reflowering is a
summer-flowering one that is close to Doritis in heritage, but I have
another that is actually a sibling of this one that is reflowering like
clockwork every summer. So how would environment account for one plant in
the same room flowering every year and producing only a moderate number of
leaves, whereas it's sister plant being this very leafy non-reflowering
plant? Unless it's a matter of micro-climates close to the individual
plants, but I tend to move plants that don't do well over a period of time
to another location eventually, and these particular orchids have been
pretty constant in their behavior no matter where I put them.
Joanna

"emntee" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi

It seem there is a contradiction here. It seems to me that if one plant
is not growing any further leaves, then the others shouldn't be growing
new leaves either. 20 leaves on a Phal is great, but I would be
inclined to look further into how you are trying to grow them. There
must be some cultural problem here that we cannot see. I would suspect
that you do not have enough of a temperature variation, but without
further info, this is just a guess.

I live in Western Australia and last year at an orchid show, an
American lady asked me for some advice. She said "My Phailianopsis
refuses to rebloom" I asked her where she was growing it and she said
"Pennsylvania". Which wasn't quite what I meant.

It turned out that she was attempting to grow her 'Phailianopsis' in an
apartment with central heating. Constant teperature = no flowers.

Tony

Joanna: I'd probably let it proceed, for now, but try to keep a close watch
so that if it shows any sign of further decline, you can either cut the
spike again, or, if it's gotten far enough along, cut the flowers/buds and
use the keiki paste on a lower node. Kenni

"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:2ZTAf.5095$Le2.710@trnddc04...
What should I do? I have a Phal that has only two leaves, and has not
grown any new ones in a while. The two remaining leaves are healthy
enough, and it's root system seems to be good enough as far as I can tell,
but still it's not one of my thriving ones for sure. This is the third
time in a row that this Phal has put out a spike. I cut off the spike the
last two times, trying to get it to concentrate on leaf growth instead.
But now it has put out a spike for the third time, and I am beginning to
question my own judgement.

Since the orchid seems to 'insist' upon spiking, should I let it spike
after all?

Should I try the keiki-grow paste? I bought this paste to apply to another
plant but wound up not using it on that one, since the spike was very
spindly and I did not see how I could strip a node effectively, even if it
had had a node that did not have a bud growing out of it (which it did
not).

What would you do if it were your Phal?

Thanks for advice!

Joanna

Tony, a few more facts that might persuade you that it's not a simple
environmental factor perhaps:

I don't grow in Pennsylvania! :-) My orchids grow in a shaded eastern window
and another unshaded northern window with supplemental grow lights, in a
condo that keeps amazing me by its level of humidity even with the heat on
(still in the 40% or more often enough, which compared to my old place is
amazingly good for wintertime). The temperature differences have been quite
good, and right now I have more Phals in spike than ever before (19 of them
are currently in spike and 9 are in bloom right now).

I have now a total of 34 Phals. Of those 28 have successfully respiked for
me at some point or another. Of the remaining 6, 4 have not been with me
long enough for the lack of respiking to mean anything and one of them is a
seedling so it wouldn't flower yet anyway, and of the other two one seems to
be recovering from a near-death experience so I wouldn't expect it to
reflower until/unless it gets much better, and the the last of these is the
afore-mentioned 19 to 20 leaf Dtps that is refusing to put out spike. 5 of
my 34 Phals have only 3 or fewer leaves, 5 others have 10 or more leaves,
the rest are somewhere in the 4 to 9 leaves spectrum. The ones with the 3 or
fewer leaves I am not too happy to see in spike since I doubt their ability
to support the energy required for blooming.

That's it in summary. And that's just the Phals so not counting the 15
orchids that are not Phal/Dtps.

Joanna
(who is surprised that she can keep track of all these orchids with the baby
but somehow it all works out -- one has to have one's priorities after all,
so 1) baby and husband 2) orchids 3) everything else (that last category, I
may or may not get to))

"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:e8eBf.4845$zh2.3569@trnddc01...
Tony,
Most of my Phals are doing very well in the same room by the same window,
and are growing leaves without any trouble whatsoever. It's definitely not
the temperature difference. The Dtps that is not reflowering is a
summer-flowering one that is close to Doritis in heritage, but I have
another that is actually a sibling of this one that is reflowering like
clockwork every summer. So how would environment account for one plant in
the same room flowering every year and producing only a moderate number of
leaves, whereas it's sister plant being this very leafy non-reflowering
plant? Unless it's a matter of micro-climates close to the individual
plants, but I tend to move plants that don't do well over a period of time
to another location eventually, and these particular orchids have been
pretty constant in their behavior no matter where I put them.
Joanna

"emntee" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi

It seem there is a contradiction here. It seems to me that if one plant
is not growing any further leaves, then the others shouldn't be growing
new leaves either. 20 leaves on a Phal is great, but I would be
inclined to look further into how you are trying to grow them. There
must be some cultural problem here that we cannot see. I would suspect
that you do not have enough of a temperature variation, but without
further info, this is just a guess.

I live in Western Australia and last year at an orchid show, an
American lady asked me for some advice. She said "My Phailianopsis
refuses to rebloom" I asked her where she was growing it and she said
"Pennsylvania". Which wasn't quite what I meant.

It turned out that she was attempting to grow her 'Phailianopsis' in an
apartment with central heating. Constant teperature = no flowers.

Tony

Steve and Kenni,
Thanks for the advice. I will then let the spike proceed while being watched
carefully.
Joanna

"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...
Joanna: I'd probably let it proceed, for now, but try to keep a close
watch so that if it shows any sign of further decline, you can either cut
the spike again, or, if it's gotten far enough along, cut the flowers/buds
and use the keiki paste on a lower node. Kenni

"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:2ZTAf.5095$Le2.710@trnddc04...
What should I do? I have a Phal that has only two leaves, and has not
grown any new ones in a while. The two remaining leaves are healthy
enough, and it's root system seems to be good enough as far as I can
tell, but still it's not one of my thriving ones for sure. This is the
third time in a row that this Phal has put out a spike. I cut off the
spike the last two times, trying to get it to concentrate on leaf growth
instead. But now it has put out a spike for the third time, and I am
beginning to question my own judgement.

Since the orchid seems to 'insist' upon spiking, should I let it spike
after all?

Should I try the keiki-grow paste? I bought this paste to apply to
another plant but wound up not using it on that one, since the spike was
very spindly and I did not see how I could strip a node effectively, even
if it had had a node that did not have a bud growing out of it (which it
did not).

What would you do if it were your Phal?

Thanks for advice!

Joanna