Methods to lower temps for Phal blooming?

[MisterGuy]

Originally Posted by Ray

Heat, good; 24-hour lighting, bad.

There are different - and essential - processes that go on in a plant in daylight and at night. By eliminating the latter, you actually weakened the plants.

A little tip: after repotting a plant, place it on the heating mat for a few weeks to accelerate root growth.

Good point, I do know better now. It just happened to be the only lighting I had going in the fall stuck on the shelf with the seedlings.

[Optimist]

I know that the nurseries know how to do it. They sell phals as "cut flowers" and don't care if they live beyond the bloom. Do they ship in a refrigerated container? I don't know. And when you get the phal which is unnaturally induced to bloom at an off time, yes, you might get a year it does not bloom because the annual rhythm is off. I have found (as far as natural rhythm, as Ray says, that putting them where they get real weather and sun, even part year, really makes them stronger).

[Bill U.]

Hi Misterguy, as you can tell, when you start to ask these types of questions, very often you can get all sorts of different answers! But Ray and King are right in that there is an average temperature difference needed and many phals like to grow quite warm (for our taste). I am also growing my phals and other orchids in an apartment here in the Midwest. For my phals, I provide some artificial light year round (shady window doesn't let much through), fertilize regularly, and then come November- February I usually get spikes and blooms just by having them within 2 feet of the windowsill. Granted, my usual summer temps are in the 75-80F range (under lights) during the day and then down to about 70F at night, but in winter, they dip down to 65-68F night with my provided space heater (otherwise it gets too cold). All of my healthy phals then tend to spike year after year without fail. If you are planning to get spikes naturally or artificially, I think that it is essential that you first focus on the year-round health of the plants, and then you will be rewarded with the spikes/blooms that come as a result.

[MojoShoujo]

Well, I got my first Phal! Just for coming everyone got a free one, and I swapped with someone else because I loved the yellow tint and they preferred mine's purple spots. I like that this one has an ID!
Should I fertilize while it's flowering or not?

[Bill U.]

Originally Posted by MojoShoujo

Well, I got my first Phal! Just for coming everyone got a free one, and I swapped with someone else because I loved the yellow tint and they preferred mine's purple spots. I like that this one has an ID!
Should I fertilize while it's flowering or not?

You can fertilize while it's flowering. Many people have different fertilizing regimes such as "weakly, weekly" or a fertilizing followed by water for the next 2 or so waterings. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind is that fertilizing should be heaviest during periods of active growth (usually Spring/Summer) and then significantly slowed during slower growth periods. As a beginner, I suggest reading this sticky: The Phal abuse ends here.

[Ray]

An article on phalaenopsis spike initiation.

[MisterGuy]

I'm trapped inside, so I figured I'd follow up. My attempts to build a swamp cooler failed horribly. You know what worked perfectly by accident? All three of the plants that I brought in from the backyard a few weeks ago have spikes going. So I guess in NC, the trick is shade and then air conditioning.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by MisterGuy

I'm trapped inside, so I figured I'd follow up. My attempts to build a swamp cooler failed horribly. You know what worked perfectly by accident? All three of the plants that I brought in from the backyard a few weeks ago have spikes going. So I guess in NC, the trick is shade and then air conditioning.

Or maybe it's just time for them to bloom. Unless you can run a controlled experiment (pretty impossible for the hobbyist) by giving some plants one treatment and other very similar or identical plants a different treatment and getting different results you have no way of knowing whether something you did made a difference, or whether it would have happened anyway, especially with a sample of only a year or two on a very few plants. Or putting it in more scientific terms, correlation does not necessarily imply causation.

[MisterGuy]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Or maybe it's just time for them to bloom. Unless you can run a controlled experiment (pretty impossible for the hobbyist) by giving some plants one treatment and other very similar or identical plants a different treatment and getting different results you have no way of knowing whether something you did made a difference, or whether it would have happened anyway, especially with a sample of only a year or two on a very few plants. Or putting it in more scientific terms, correlation does not necessarily imply causation.

In this context, it's both the observed and predicted behavior based on temperature. I have plenty of other plants that didn't go outside that didn't initiate spiking yet and also haven't experienced any temperature changes.