Spiking already?
 

Hey guys. This morning as I was watering, I happen to see one of my phals is once again in spike. It had gone into spike last Nov, and the flowers lasted until mid June. And now it's going again? Come to think of it, there is another one of my phals that spiked and rebloomed almost immediately after I cut off the spent spike. Is this strange?

My experience is admittedly very limited, but I'll share it here only because there seems to be no rhyme or reason. I only have two Phals that have ever rebloomed for me, and they did so at intervals of 8, 15, and 6 months for one, and 18 months for the other, with no regard for time of year. But I read from other people on the board how their Phals bloom every year at the same time, so I don't have a clue what's normal.

Don't argue with success... they do what they want to do, when they want to do it. Hybrid Phals often really don't have a particular season, being very complex hybrids. And since they originally likely had any natural bloom time further manipulated to be in bloom for holidays, shows, etc, it could take several years for the natural cycle to manifest itself if it does exist. Add the complexity of your own habitat (house temperatures, light, humidity, etc) that may differ from what the plant experienced before, and there is probably no such thing as "normal" for the genus as a whole. And maybe not for individual plants either. If it's blooming, just enjoy. It's the "right time" for that plant, this month and year.

Some if mine are spiking now too.

There was a long text here about the weird spiking habits of my phals, but to be blunt it is probably because there were some particularly hot or cold days or weeks in the preceding months. I've come to understand that most of the time (though obviously based on my own phals, this is not the only factors) a healthy phal will start a spike after the average temperature (day+night) over a two week or so period drops significantly. It then takes a few weeks for the spikes to be be prominent. That's why you would usually notice the spikes in late fall or early winter. An off-season heat wave or cold spell might change this pattern.

For instance, I also have four phals in spike. We had a prolonged heat wave from early to mid summer, then a sudden dramatic drop in temperature (and equally dramatic increase in humidity) three weeks ago. This drop is probably the cause of the early spiking. Temperatures have gone up again by now so here is to hoping it will last for more than a week so the rest of my phals will also set spikes by the time fall gets really cold.

I was going to say the same thing as Puja, that saves me the typing!
I used to think that my hybrids bloomed rather randomly, but after years of logging the same plants and monitoring temperature variation, I see patterns. One is that the hybrids will more or less spike in the same order each year, even if the start of spiking shifts from year to year. The other is in line with Puja's comment- as soon as there's been a few weeks of general cooling down, spikes start. Sometimes that's late August, sometimes it's as late as early October before I see spikes. Some years it's less noticeable, as the typical Dutch summer isn't that hot, and the transition to 'not so warm' may not be as stark as this year was.

That is really interesting as that is what I had typed at first! My phals also seem to have a rhythm in that the same plants always spike together, and those grouping spike in the same order. It can take a year or two for new acquisitions to fall into place because they need to adjust to their new environment from wherever they grew before, but after that it never shifts much. There are only a few plants that do not follow this pattern, which I guess is because some genetic factor requires additional triggers rather than just temperature (daylight hours or humidity or shorter or longer periods of temp change, I guess).