Question about Phal growth habits

[rbarata]

And do you remember what time of the year it was?
What vendors usually do is to put them on sale when they're blooming. Although they can "force it" artificially, you might get an idea of its blooming season.

[Dollythehun]

Rbarata and Jkofferdahl are far more knowledgable than I. However, ALL my noid Phal's are spiking. Normally, they bloom in winter, but like my dendrobium, they didn't get them memo.

[Tindomul]

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

some botanists have even told me that the flowers and spike are essentially just a very modified leaf structure.

This is very true. Starting with the ovary which is a modified leaf that closed in to form the carpel (the pistil). Many very ancient lineages of living flowering plants have carpels (pisitils) that are not completely closed and therefore look more like a folded leaf.
The petals and sepals are all modified leaves.
Leaves are modified stems.
That is the beauty of plants and other life forms, variations on the same theme is where biodiversity comes from. I LOVE IT!!

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by 3rdMaestro

However none of them any trace of spike remaining now. All of them, save 1, I've had for about a year or more

If you have had them that long and no spike, perhaps give a thought to light duration. They don't want a lot of intensity, but come from equatorial regions where they get light about 12 hours a day all year around. As we get into shorter days, that clearly isn't going to happen no matter how good your "window" light is. Consider supplementing whatever natural light they get with fluorescent light (just plain generic full-spectrum "daylight" bulb) on a timer, 12 hours a day. I have had excellent success with this approach.

[jkofferdahl]

[flowerpower]

I was curious from the question if they have a strict pattern so I went to look at my phals as a "survey". I cannot see any pattern at all to their growth habit. There are some in spike in various stages of leaf growth, and others not in spike at various stages. My sympodial orchids - den nobiles, oncidiums, cattleyas, miltoniopsis all have a much more predictable pattern.

I agree with Roberta about light. When I put four of my 15 phals in a shady, north-west window I started to see problems like slow growth and severe root rot (in fresh bark). They do scorch easily in full sun, but need consistent light sun and warmth. They suffer greatly in low light/cloudy conditions if there are no sunny spells (I bought mine some lights yesterday because of their poor performance in this window). I think light is most important for initiating a spike. We are advised phals are lower light plants but I think this is relative to other orchids rather than plants in general. I noticed two new spikes in a room where the temperature dropped this Autumn but if you give them light they will spike anyway - the temp drop might move them along though!

[malteseproverb]

I have a phal right now putting out two spikes AND two leaves! It's a very large plant so I guess it's just ambitious...

[jkofferdahl]

[Dollythehun]

You can herd cats, John. You just have to herd from the front with the right food!😃😄😅😆

[3rdMaestro]

So I'm beginning think my phals need more light. They are putting out new leaves regularly but no spikes. Currently they are in a west window with a rose bush outside the window