Why is it so short?

[mjgord51]

This Phal we've had for 5 years now and has did quite well over its years but after a re-pot this time a short stem (5 inch) has two buds on it and will soon bloom.
Never had one so short stemmed before, whats going on with it this time? Any input on this would be appreciated.
Thanks, Marvin

[estación seca]

The leaves have fine linear wrinkles. That means it's been underwatered for quite some time, or the roots are in bad shape. You would have noticed bad roots when you repotted, so it's probably underwatered. Chronic underwatering will lead to poor flowering. I would shorten the watering interval. To give it an extra drink I would consider setting the pot in a large bowl of water for 4-6 hours, just once.

The crown of the plant is quite a ways above the medium. The new roots should be emerging into the medium, not having to look for it. The medium still looks quite fresh. There is plenty of room in the pot to add more medium, which is what I would do. I would add medium until the topmost new root is buried by one layer of bark.

Do you know what caused the leaf damage? I can't see well enough to tell. It could have been scraping against something, but it also could have been caused by meal bugs or scale. Plants with even small numbers of insects often don't flower well.

[mjgord51]

Originally Posted by estación seca

The leaves have fine linear wrinkles. That means it's been underwatered for quite some time, or the roots are in bad shape. You would have noticed bad roots when you repotted, so it's probably underwatered. Chronic underwatering will lead to poor flowering. I would shorten the watering interval. To give it an extra drink I would consider setting the pot in a large bowl of water for 4-6 hours, just once.

The crown of the plant is quite a ways above the medium. The new roots should be emerging into the medium, not having to look for it. The medium still looks quite fresh. There is plenty of room in the pot to add more medium, which is what I would do. I would add medium until the topmost new root is buried by one layer of bark.

Do you know what caused the leaf damage? I can't see well enough to tell. It could have been scraping against something, but it also could have been caused by meal bugs or scale. Plants with even small numbers of insects often don't flower well.

After its re-plant and before it got watered twice a week then once a month a one hour soaking. I took it out of the medium just to look over the roots no root rot so I re-potted it and covered the bare roots.

As for the damage on the leaves nothing touches it always on/in the corner of bathroom counter. I haven't noticed any bugs crawling on/around the plant so what is shown in the picture above might be what you say is "scale", which I have not a clue of how it would get on them or how to treat it. I will get closer pictures in a while.

[estación seca]

The wrinkling is more severe than I appreciated in the first photos. In your conditions it needs more frequent watering than you have been doing. Those wrinkles might never go away, but with proper watering new leaves will be normal.

The white spots look like something scraped the leaves. I don't think it's an insect problem.

[mjgord51]

For the white spots I think when re-potting it a month ago I could have gotten some medium or bark on the leaves and brushed it off a little ruff and scrapped the leaves and didn't realize how ruff I could have been on them, Opps my bad. This is the only thing I can think that would have scrapped them, guess I'll be more careful in the future.

[Ray]

I agree. It is severely underwatered.