Phalaen. not getting bigger

[Possum-Pie]

I bought 3 very small (2.5" diameter pot) Phals on sale about 5 months ago. They bloomed until about 1 week ago. All very healthy. Anyway, is there any way to encourage them to get bigger? I fertilize "weakly weekly" as I do with all of my other orchids. I thought about transplanting them, but I've learned from experience not to transplant unless absolutely necessary. Any ideas? Am I just impatient? Do they only get bigger when not in bloom?

[Ray]

Patience, Grasshopper...

[Possum-Pie]

Originally Posted by Ray

Patience, Grasshopper...

Thanks. My hypothesis is that the plant diverts its energy to blossoms, then to leaves when the blossoms fall off. Is that correct?

[Optimist]

Another alternative idea is that it is a miniature phalaenopsis. There are some tiny little phal hybrids that will never get very big.

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:41 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Possum-Pie

Thanks. My hypothesis is that the plant diverts its energy to blossoms, then to leaves when the blossoms fall off. Is that correct?

I am not sure I go for this idea (I may have long ago when I started). From what I understand hormone cascades are triggered by environmental events like climate, the angle of the sun and so on. This is what causes spike growth, blooming, and then the loss of the flowers and then the turning to vegetative growth. In a sense, the same happens to apple trees or any other plant with flowers. The flowers come out, if they are fertilized they have a seed pod (fruit), and then the fruit ripens and in the meantime, the leaves grow for energy and growth of the entire tree.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Optimist

I am not sure I go for this idea (I may have long ago when I started). From what I understand hormone cascades are triggered by environmental events like climate, the angle of the sun and so on. This is what causes spike growth, blooming, and then the loss of the flowers and then the turning to vegetative growth. In a sense, the same happens to apple trees or any other plant with flowers. The flowers come out, if they are fertilized they have a seed pod (fruit), and then the fruit ripens and in the meantime, the leaves grow for energy and growth of the entire tree.

Originally Posted by Possum-Pie

Thanks. My hypothesis is that the plant diverts its energy to blossoms, then to leaves when the blossoms fall off. Is that correct?

The plant may have hormonal cascades to initiate a spike that is caused by external factors, but that doesn't necessarily mean there is no energy being directed to initiating a spike. There clearly is. Growth requires energy consumption.

[Possum-Pie]

Thanks for the input. I suspect angle of sunlight is not so important as amount of sunlight in house plants. While sun angle changes do result in spectrum changes, house windows and eaves negate most of that, as opposed to being in a jungle canopy where it is more noticed. I'm still fairly new to orchids, and have always been a tad bit impatient. I've had a Phal. for 2 years that is constantly putting out new leaves and is huge, but these tiny ones just seem to maintain the same size. The only reason I really care about size is that smaller ones tend to be more sensitive to small changes in water, etc. than the larger ones.