Is the number of spikes pre-determined?

[bwehr28]

I have a large phal that I bought in March of this year. When I bought it, it was in bloom and had 2 spikes. One spike was not staked and broke off during transport (it was a clearance orchid). I let the other spike stay in bloom. It wilted in May and I repotted it. It is now growing a new spike.

My questions is, did I screw up this orchids bloom cycle when the one spike broke during transport? Does a double spiked orchid always grow 2 spikes at once? If it does, will the spikes keep alternating bloom timing? I'm not concerns, more just curious.

Thanks as always for the help and support!

[nogreenthumbs]

I don't think these will necessarily always do the same thing twice. I think there may be some plants that have a tendency to multiple spikes and some may not, but I don't think a double spike plant will always throw double spikes, and it may be different the time after that. How happy and healthy the plant is with it's environment will probably also have a lot to do with how it grows and blooms.

These things don't have hard and fast rules, they have guidelines and can and will do different stuff just to keep us on our toes.

Having the one spike break, probably wont' have any effect on future spiking. If anything, you saved the plant having to put a lot of energy into the other spike which may have helped it adjust to the new environment and stress of things changing.

[bwehr28]

When a phal is going to have 2 spikes for a bloom period, do they develop at the same rate, or could the second one sprout in a month or so?

[dounoharm]

most phals just do what they want....some come at the same time and others come over weeks or months....the flowering cycle is initiated by a slight drop in nighttime temps....

[camille1585]

The majority of Phals have spikes induced by the natural drop in temperature at the end of summer and in autumn. Commercial growers can easily manipulate conditions in the greenhouses to induce spikes whenever they want. So it sounds like your Phal was artificially induced to bloom in March, and your plant is simply more or less back on it's normal cycle.

As for the double spike question, commercial growers have 100% control over culture in their greenhouses (fertilizer, light, temperature, humidity...) and can give the plants exactly what they need for fast and robust growth, and can obtain 2 spikes on most of the crop. Genetics also has a lot to do with it. Once the Phal is in standard home conditions, they no longer have that ideal environment. Often they will only produce 1 spike, but every once in a while I'll get 2 spikes.

[Ray]

The number of spikes is determined by genetics, health, and the environment.

The first two seem self-evident to me.

There is a grower I know in Central America that intentionally grew his phals constantly hot for several years. Those plants probably had ten or twelve pairs of leaves, and were just huge! He then gave them a two-week period of about 20F cooler temperatures, and when those plants spiked, each threw about a dozen...

[jkofferdahl]

The effect of temperature dropping on the spiking of Phals is vastly overrated. In fact, such a temperature drop can't occur in Spring-blooming Phals!

A Phal may have two spikes this year, one next year, and three the following. Some Phals which rebloom from the same spike may have even more. It's not really dependent on anything other than the whim of the plant.