phal. gigantea
 

I have just recieved a phal gigantea. Can anyone tell me how I should care for it. Apart from lots of TLC (Tender Loving Care!) do I just give it the same treatment as the other phals? It's a young plant with small leaves and no flower spikes yet. Thanks, in advance

Firstly, how large is yours? It would be easy to grow at least over the size of 2 inches pot. Young plant needs less sunlight and fertilization. Do not let the roots too dry. It grows very slowly, need to be patient for years to see the spike.
I am still waiting....:yawn:

They also want temps above 60 with 65 and above as preferable for night temps.

Seedlings grow in regular Phal. light but when the leaves are about half of their adult size, move it to more sun to get it to bloom.

Be patient, a seedling is a few years from blooming.

Brooke

I've got one of these giants of the genus whose leaves are probably a third of the way of a fully grown plant so I guess that we both will have to wait a couple of years until we get blooms. We've got to be very patient with this chids.

Here's a photo of the phal gigaenta, which is rather small! When do you think it will flower??

I cannot give you a definitive time to reach blooming age but I would suggest a more shallow pot to grow it in.

Brooke

How large is the plant? Or, what's the measurement of the leaf span? Gigantea is, if memory serves, the largest of the Phals, so it's going to get pretty big before it's ready to bloom.

Thanks for your help. I'll send the vital statistics soon, but I think jkofferdahl is right, it's going to need some time before flowering. What is a year in the orchid scale of things?

It is probably a couple years from blooming assuming good growth.

One thing, gigantea can be prone to rot, so try even harder than you do with your other phals to not get water in the crown and don't let it sit on the leaves very long.

Good luck. Looks like a nice little plant.

I measured it this morning. The pot is 9cm across, and the leaves are 15 cms from tip to tip. There doesn't seem to be much root formation. Will that come on it's own naturally? If it's happy, and grows, it might give me roots as well. There's nothing like TLC!