Why the length of flower spike is too short.

[abhijit]

My Mtdm. Bartley Schwarz ‘Highland’ is flowering now. I am very happy to see her dashing, gentle smiling face but at the same time I also feel dishearten to see the length of her flower spike is too short. What are undesired factors that I did with her? Is it the cause of lack of light or nutrition? Please anyone notice me.

[Ray]

There are any number of factors that lead to limited blooming. Anything that resulted in "less than ideal culture", can play a role, but if it is a small division or relatively immature plant, that could do it as well.

[james mickelso]

Ray is right. It is an immature plant and this most likely caused it to have just a few blooms. Miltonidiums don't have long inflorescenses anyway for the most part. I ad two and they were 8 pbulb plants and only had if I remember right, about 10-12 blooms. I've seen more at shows though. Give it good light and culture and in a few years it will give you more blooms.

[MysticOrchid]

It could be the light too

[james mickelso]

Yes light is a factor to a certain extent but the most important factor in how large a flowering will be is how much energy has been stored in the plant. If immature the pbulb doesn't have as much energy stored to produce a long inflorescence with a large number of flowers.

[abhijit]

Yes. You are right. The plant has only one pbulb. Actually my friend gave me that plant cut from his own mother plant. But now the second pbulb is appears. So I’ll be expecting, one day she produce a long flower spike with several flowers. Thanks all of you for your valuable replies.

[MysticOrchid]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

Yes light is a factor to a certain extent but the most important factor in how large a flowering will be is how much energy has been stored in the plant. If immature the pbulb doesn't have as much energy stored to produce a long inflorescence with a large number of flowers.

Apsolutelly right! I have a typical example for this. One of my phalaenopsis also had a short blooming spike with few buds on it. I was wondering what reason could this be, but soon I found the answer: STORED ENERGY. Seemed like my phalaenopsis lost all of its energy to produce the two seed pods that I pollinated earlier! That was such a waste, because the spike began to turn yellow, and the seed pods too, because the plant was preparing itself for growing new leaf and roots. I didn't even sow them in the medium that I prepared it! Such a waste! Than, later in the fall I got a 3 inch bloom spike with two buds that never opened. Such a loss for my poor orchid Hopefully that now is ready for a long, beautifull bloom spike