Stunted Miltonia spike?

[snowflake311]

I bought this miltonia orchid for under $4 because it was not in bloom and I don't think anyone knew it was an orchid.

The plant was very stressed at the store or from being moved around and neglected. I bought it at the grocery outlet it had the Matsui tag. It is a healthy plant with great roots.

I repotted the plant, the leaf color is lighter and looks great now. I have 2 new growths that are doing well but there is old growth on the plant that seems to be stunted?

If a plant becomes too stressed will it just stop growing?

The first photo is a little growth on the Bulb that has not grown at all since I bought it. The other photos are of growth that just stopped and has not grown at all since I got it.

I am just confused by this stunted growth. where these flower spikes that just stopped developing?

[WhiteRabbit]

I have occasionally gotten spikes from the tops of pbulbs on Onc alliance plants - they typically don't develop fully. I did recently have a Miltassia spike from the top of the pbulb that got several buds, and bloomed just like a typical spike, but that's the first time for me.

[snowflake311]

So is it normal for growth to stop growing when the plant was stressed ? And will it grow again or is it stunted. Because I have 2 new shoots not in the photos that are growing really well as these old ones never grew an inch.

[WhiteRabbit]

Sorry - I previously looked at your post on my (small) phone, and didn't see clearly

First pic - there's often a little nub at the top of pbulbs, they don't grow - BUT yours does look like something might be growing there - wait and see Typically, new growth comes from the base of the most recently matured pbulbs.

Second and third pix - look like aborted spikes; could be from 'stress' - change in environment, cold draft, warm draft, too little or too much water, sudden extreme change in temps, etc - and sometimes it just happens ...

[lotis146]

I've seen this with my Zygolum (Maxillaria Alliance) but I also have Bratonia (aka Miltassia, I think...) that has two bulbs, recently flowered, that have two new growths each. However only one on each pbulb has actually grown. My Zygolum had 3 new growths, one stopped growing all together, the second grew and grew then stopped while the third grew, stopped, then when the second stopped it started growing again and eventually had two spikes. I suspect in this case that I wasn't watering often enough.

My assumption is that the plant grows as much as the conditions serve it, so-to-speak. I would bet that in optimal conditions all three of those growths would have grown on my Zygolum. Perhaps they will start again, perhaps not. Same for my Bratonia, maybe the other two will start up again.

So like WhiteRabbit said I think you'll just have to wait and see, attempting all the meanwhile to provide optimal conditions.

Good luck.

[gngrhill]

The growth in picture one looks almost like it's trying to grow a kieki ?

[snowflake311]

Well I now have 3 new growths on this plant so fingers crossed I get flowers in the spring. I am excited about that. One growth is badly wrinkled due to me going on vacation.

Yes I was wondering if maybe that was a Kieki too. I read it can happen but is rear in these plants. That growth has stopped growing all together now. The plant is getting what it needs. I think this plant was under lots of stress at the store so it started to send out a kieki. Now that growing conditions are better no need to grow that Kieki I guess.