Great news!

[gittins120]

It's been a while since i've been on the site but must share my fab news with you! Back in May i was struggling to get my phal to flower again and i can now announce that three new leaves later i have a four inch flower spike! I'm over the moon and can't quite believe it - living in the North of England i was worried when i put the plant in the garage every night for a month - but it obviously worked! Thanks for the advice you were spot on!

[arleneg]

Congrats! Please post a picture. We'd like to see you pride and joy.

Next spring (late March to late May here), I plan on putting my Phals by the front door for a month or so. We'll see if I can get them to (finally) bloom for me.

[mayres]

The cold night treatment is interesting. A lot of factors, including when did the plant spike/flower last, genetics, health of plant, etc. seem to influence how well this process works. I started with about 30 phals and half of them have responded to the cooling down at night with spikes in 3-4 weeks. The other half I will continue for another two weeks and then "they are on their own" to do what they will, being left with the rest of the plants. It has been suggested that length of day/period of light is also a significant influence - I have backed off some, but perhaps reducing my daytime artificial hours would have increased my percentage of spikes by now? Lots of options to experiment with over time and see what works for each person and place......

[Maddy]

My phal in spike now (I don't know the name; it's from Lowe's) I didn't do anything special with - it was in the kitchen window after it stopped blooming, but I put it downstairs under a growlight when it looked like it wasn't getting enough light to be happy, then just watered it when it needed it. Poor little guy - I think I made all the usual mistakes with it, and it's about to bloom for me anyway

[flaorchidfan]

my phals ale too in spike. being in central florida we wait and wait for that little chill that does the trick...yes it does get a chill down here. couple weeks ago it got cold enough to actually close the house and turn the heat on one day, yep just for a day but that did it. I have several in spike now.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I have been keeping an eye open for hints on Phal forcing in my reading and shuffling thru old notes. So one more trick. Appearently, in the phals native habitat, winter is a time of HIGH light. Probably has to do with either a lot less cloud cover, or that they grow on deciduous trees. At any rate, I found several recomendations to 'change to new fluorescent tubes' in Aug or Sept, and to move the plants closer to the tubes during this time. Apparently this is an important pattern used in the commercial industry to kick off the bloom cycle in Phals. Good luck to all who have yet to get spikes, including a couple of mine. Think I will move mine to the south and very bright end of the GH, and a lot lower down, but not so low that the light gets cut off from the surrounding benches.

[Daniel S. Barrett]

Hi everyone,
I've found growing under lights that a higher intensity of light to about 1,500 foot candles, (or about 16,000 -17,000 lux/lumns) plus a few 100 watt incandesent light bulbs a few feet away & a shorter day length of about 14 -16 hours, & cooler nights of 60-65 degrees, have nearly all my 100 phals in spike or bloom right now.

[SwTLaDYy16]

Wow...you have 100 phals??? that's awesome...the more I shop for orchids...the more it seems to me that i mgiht end up growing a specialized collection of just phals....most of my orchids are phals...hahaha i don't know...not sure if i can "specialize" my collection...too many beautiful species out there...

Originally Posted by Daniel S. Barrett

Hi everyone,
I've found growing under lights that a higher intensity of light to about 1,500 foot candles, (or about 16,000 -17,000 lux/lumns) plus a few 100 watt incandesent light bulbs a few feet away & a shorter day length of about 14 -16 hours, & cooler nights of 60-65 degrees, have nearly all my 100 phals in spike or bloom right now.

[prisana]

All of mine are too..but I have a question, now that they are in spike do I have to worry about the light being left on at night? They are growing outside.. and besides the automatic floodlight that the racoons or possums set off every once in a while, there are also christmas lights on trees.. Will all of these have any effect on my plants?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

All this fancy footwork is just to get the plant to initiate spikes. Once they start the spike, there is a whole new set of hormones at work to keep the spike going, so don't need any of this special treatment anymore.

[prisana]

Great! thanks Cynthia...now I can lay off my hubby about leaving the lights on all night.

[gittins120]

Another question! Is it usual to get just one spike? most phals that i've seen for sale nearly always have two, I'm very grateful for my one but two would be even better!

[jerrymeola]

gittens

multiple spikes on a Phal are mostly a result of age. As the plant gets bigger and older you get more spikes. Plants I did not sell last year are putting up 2-4 spikes each this year.

you are seeing more multiples because the places you go prefer to pay a premium for multiples. The plants are a year older and worth extra.

I just opened three cases of intergeneric Oncidium types that for an extra premium all had 2-5 spikes. These are for the upcoming Sarasota Orchid show.

For anyone in Florida in January the Sarasota orchid show is Jan 5-6 at the convention center.