Reblooming Phal question.
 

Hi everyone :)

I have managed to get two of my phal's to rebloom for me this year after buying them last summer. However I have noticed that the new flower spike/stem is less than half the length and alot skinnier than the orginal stem, they also tend to have only 3-4 flowers rather than the 7-8 when I bought it. I was wondering if this is normal when blooming in home conditions or if i'm doing something wrong or if there is anything I do to get a more impressive show???

appreciate any help :)

Asher

My guess would be that it needs a little more light. Either stronger light or longer daylight hours. I assume that you're been fertilizing on a regular basis. If not, you need to do so. Good luck.

I think it's fairly normal when blooming at home. Number of blooms and thickness of the stem can be genetic, however it also depends on conditions and health of the plant, as the nurseries get ideal conditions we always tend to get less when flowering them at home.

You can do things to improve your conditions as Tucker suggests, however I've always had less flowers when I re-bloom them. One I bought with 5 spikes, always has 3 spikes for me. One I bought with two spikes tends to always have 1 for me.

I generally have not been very successful with re-blooming. I've been in a newbie phase where I seem to kill off more plants than I'm actually able to grow and keep happy. :s

But, then a few months ago, I all of a sudden seemed to get the hang of my phals. New spikes, happy roots, big leaves...

Up to then I always used to try to make the most of the existing spikes and left them in place hoping for a re-bloom. That worked, kind of. But the spike grew very long and lanky and the flowers were few and smaller and they just tended to be awkward looking plants.

So I built up the courage to cut the spikes off. When the last flower wilts, I cut off the whole spike freeing the plant from the 'old luggage', even if the tips are still green and alive. That, together with an increase in humidity (compared to how I used to grow my phals) and a significant drop in temperatures to initiate new spikes, seemed to do wonders for my phals.

Looks to me like they benefit from being freed of the old spike and have a short rest before they focus their attention on growing a brand new spike instead of putting energy into old ones that (in my growing conditions, at least) seem to be at a stand-still for months before the plant decides to put out a couple more flowers.

The phals where I cut off the old spike immediately after it was done flowering are now growing massive new spikes that looks like trees and they got loads of buds. Will be interesting to see if the flower size is ok... but at least the buds look promising.

Thanks Rosie it makes me feel alot better knowing i'm not the only one :) I suppose I should be pleased that they rebloom at all and be happy with the flowers that I have as its better than having none at all.