What to do with old spikes

[Roberta]

12 hours a day for light should be perfect. The species in the background of the plants come from mostly from the Philippines - tropical, so days and nights are pretty much equal.

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by miakaye

Thanks, Mateo & Roberta. In the past, I've had success getting a new spike only when placing the plant in a cool window at night, as the night temp in our home is not much lower than the day temp.
I grow my plants under full-spectrum lights. (There is virtually NO sunlight here in Kentucky during winter.) I've been keeping the lights on for about 12 hours a day. Do y'all think that's too long? (The other phal is about to bloom.)

12h is absolutely fine and it's not too long at all. Some growers go up to 16. With mine I accustom them starting at 10h and go up to 14h. But since I grow most of my plants together I can't cater to all of them individually, so they all pretty much get the same stuff and I haven't noticed a problem.

If the cool window trick works for you then that's absolutely fine (make sure the plant doesn't touch the glass though). But if you haven't experimented with just leaving the plant where it is and see if that initiates a spike, I can say that it might surprise you how easily they can spike with just normal average temperature reduction from Summer into Winter. But your mileage may vary.

[miakaye]

Thanks again, Mateo & Roberta, for all your good advice!