Phalaenopsis growing 4 leaves at once!

[squeakyninjanerd]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum, and fairly new to orchids. I have a phal that I received as a free extra for my first order at a nursery a while back. I have reason to believe it is either a Phalaenopsis stuartiana 'nobilis x Inya' x schilleriana or a Phalaenopsis Philadelphia (schilleriana x stuartiana) because these are the only two mottled leaf pals that they list on the nursery's website.

The issue I'm having is that it has started 4 progressively smaller leaves before finishing any of the others in my care. Is there anything I can do about this? Should I be worried? Will the stubby leaves eventually grow?

The plant was small when I received it, and had maybe 5 leaves (4 mature, and the one with the split down the middle in the photo). Since then, it has not grown this 5th leaf at all, but has started now 3 new leaves in progression, which haven't grown much. The plant also had signs of 4 spent flower spikes, but from reading, I think these varieties can start spiking young. It is growing new roots, and doesn't appear to be noticeably stressed, other than the leaf issue.

Any insight into this phenomenon would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Ray]

Welcome to the board, "Squeaky".

I'm going to go out on a limb and based upon the round, misshapen leaves (the severe split in the large one and the cleft in the newer one), speculate that there could be three different things going on:

1) you received some sort of genetic "freak" of a plant,

2) the plant has been treated with a chemical that has really messed with the growth pattern, or

3) the cultural parameters it has been getting are extremely poor - low humidity being the biggest; possibly low temperature, as well.

By the way, the hybrid between Phalaenopsis schilleriana and stuartiana is Phalaenopsis Wiganiae, registered in 1899, and the name applies no matter which way the cross was made. There is no registered hybrid of Phal. Philadelphia.

[aliceinwl]

I’ve never had quite this problem but I have gotten some Phalaenopsis with funky leaves or other growth issues. In a lot of cases the roots were bad and the substrate was in poor condition: the plants seemed to be marshaling their internal reserves to fuel growth which was increasingly poor. I’ve also seen it in some of my plants that I kept too cold for too long.

If you haven’t already, I’d repot it and check your temperatures. Once my plants grew a healthy root system, subsequent leaves were in good shape. The Phalaenopsis I grow that have, or look to have, a lot of P. schilleriana in their background also seem to be less tolerant of low temperatures than most of my others. Moving struggling plants to warmer locations, triggered lots of root and leaf growth in mine with the size and shape of leaves becoming “normal”.

I don’t know what conditions predispose Phalaenopsis to develop these round leaves. No matter where I grow them, what light levels I give them, all new growth in my care ends up being more strap shaped but of similar surface area even if the plants never had a set back.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by squeakyninjanerd

The issue I'm having is that it has started 4 progressively smaller leaves before finishing any of the others in my care. Is there anything I can do about this? Should I be worried? Will the stubby leaves eventually grow?

As long as the leaves stay looking healthy, and they keep increasing in size, then that should be fine.

If the maximum size the new leaves reach is significantly less than the older large leaves, then could review growing conditions - including fertilising schedule etc.

[aaromano]

could be the apical growth area got some slight damage and caused weird growth pattern you are seeing.