stem count on phalaenopsis - Orchid Board

picdriver · #1 05-27-2012, 07:50 AM

Hi all...only came across this site thru google so hello!...Anyway....bought a phalaenopsis last year from a supermarket & it had two stems growing from it both flowering. (cut these back when died just above a node a couple of inches from base..now got two little brown sticks protruding from the leaves where they first sprouted...anyway..) I've got another stem growing this year..tall enough now that buds are starting to form...but was wondering why it had two stems when it was first bought & now It's only growing one...& then I'm seeing online pics of phals with more than two stems! Is there something I have to do to encourage more than one stem or is it down to the plant alone how many stems it's going to grow? TIA..Andy.

camille1585 · #2 05-27-2012, 08:25 AM

Commercial growers can tinker with their conditions so precisely that they can encourage multiple spikes quite easily. However once at home, the conditions aren't so perfect and so there's often only one spike. Genetics also has a lot to do with it. However with good culture and patience you can build up the strength of the Phal so that it may produce 2 spikes at once. Maybe next year, maybe in a few years. Who knows!

picdriver · #3 05-27-2012, 09:33 AM

Ah well that answers my question..oh well one it is for now then...& they're called spikes as opposed to stems...Thanks Camille.

camille1585 · #4 05-27-2012, 09:36 AM

Stems is not wrong. Spike is the word used by orchid people.

RosieC · #5 05-29-2012, 11:08 AM

Yeah, I agree with Camille. I just wanted to say welcome to Orchid Board though

picdriver · #6 05-30-2012, 03:33 PM

Cheers Camille....Well I wouldn't have known what a spike was before your reference to it & woulda been looking in all the wrong places

& thanks for the Welcome RosieC

Bud · #7 05-30-2012, 05:06 PM

WELCOME ABOARD!
I have a Phal hybrid that I got with one spike blooming,then the blooms withered and died in 5 weeks....4 months after, it brought out two spikes but only one grew into tall profusion with 12 blooms, and the second spike grew up to only 6 inches and stayed that way until the blooms of the other spike withered and die....its still very green and still at six inches....I will wait til it grows into a tall spike and open its blooms