Knewb Here- Spike Identification?

[Trailwanderer]

Good afternoon... New to forums! I have a silly question I hope someone might be able to answer for me. I bought this Phal at least 10 years ago now for my GF. It was in bloom when I bought it. Went through the bloom cycle, and I cut the spike off at the base. For the last 10 years, I thought I made a drastic mistake, as it never bloomed again. My GF has kept this "green thing" alive all this time with the hopes that some day it would decide to bloom. Every couple years I look at it with disgust LOL. Today, I had a look again and this is what I found... Is this ACTUALLY A SPIKE? I'm pretty certain it is, just wanted a professional opinion. Thank you!







---------- Post added at 04:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:05 PM ----------

... Great, no pictures

---------- Post added at 04:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:07 PM ----------

Lets try this...

Dropbox - Photo Nov 04, 3 31 17 PM.jpg - Simplify your life

[Roberta]

First, welcome!

The question isn't silly at all!

A photo will help. (While some have indicated that you need 5 posts to upload photos, I have seen others do it the first time... worth a try) To do that, from the Quick Reply dialog box, click on Go Advanced. Look down the page a bit,and you will see a Manage Attachments button. It will pop up another window, where you can browse for your photo. Select it, then click Upload. You can then close the pop-up window, and post your reply.

Orchids teach patience, not doing anything fast. But this one pushed you... and patience likely won out. One think that I have found with Phals is that while they like relatively low light, the need a longer duration than they often get in the house to rebloom. You can extend the "day" with an LED or fluorescent light - a timer, on 12 hours a day, really can help.

[Trailwanderer]

Roberta... The is a reply to my original post with a link to my dropbox

[Roberta]

By golly, that does look like a spike is on its way! Congratulations!

[Trailwanderer]

AWESOME! Thank you!

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board, and congratulations!

There is a thread here dealing with how to care for Phals. You can find it from the left yellow menu. Click on Forums then Beginners. Near the top is a sticky thread The Phal abuse ends here. Phals are extremely tolerant of underwatering, but this prevents flowering. They do best evenly moist, with lots of air at the roots. In many a drop in temperature in the fall and early winter may trigger flowering.

[Trailwanderer]

Thank you!