one flower spike,why not two?

[wick]

Hello everyone
I bought a rather ill looking phalaenopsis last april.
With a bit of care and food it started doing well and had two flower spikes,which opened into a lovely flowers.
By August,the flowers had all but gone and when the last flower faded i removed the old spikes.
About a month later a new flower spike started to grow real slow......but just one.......its now november and the flower spike is real tall and forming little buds.
My question is,why isnt the plant growing 2 flower spike,as it was when i bought it.
Is it common for this plant to just grow one spike at a time?
belive me,im not dissapointed,as i love any flowers it gives,just wondering.
Many thanks for any help

[Erce]

it takes a lot, and i mean A LOT of energy for the chid to grow a strong flowerspike! So your chid maybee only have the energy for one spike - i can also have something to do with the count of leafs - the spikes normal comes out between the older leafs.
Manu og the phal hybrid we buy from the normal shops - not from breeders - are 4 leafs and have been under a lot of presur to put out flowerspikes early - its normal for a noid to have about a half year brake from flowering to get energy.

[RenéeS]

Erce is right takes a lot of energy for a plant to spike and sometimes they may be 'too tired' and put more effort in growing strong then in flowering . Just that you buy it with 2 spikes doesn't mean it will flower again with 2 spikes.

[quiltergal]

I think sometimes if you cut the spike a bit sooner, and give it a longer growth cycle you can sometimes get 2 spikes. I don't think 2 is the norm however.

[Psyguy10]

Some Phalaenopsis only grow two spikes if growing conditions are optimal. This is pretty normal.

[tim abbott]

The attached pics are of the first orchid I got & it was given to me, I don't know what type of phal it is, but it is extremely prolific. The big plant on the left is the origional plant, the small one on the right is a keike(sp) that was taken from the first generation keike. I let the spikes from last year go to see if I would get more flower spikes & now I have the 4 little babies growing. The third photo shows a close up of two new spikes growing, hopefully they will be flowers.

Tim Abbott

[camille1585]

To add to what's been said, the mass growers who produce all these NOIDs know how to fiddle around with the culture to make sure that obtain 2 or 3 spikes on all the phals of a single crop. They have it down to an art. I think there also is some genetics involved. Some phals will produce more than one spike almost every blooming (I have 3 phals like that) while others only make one, no matter how well cared for the plant is.
That being said, congrats on getting it to respike so quickly!

[wick]

Many thanks for your help.