Phal to SH: Stopped Growing??

[schwing]

I bought a doritaenopsis a few years ago, had it for the first year and it didn't grow a minimeter the whole year. I took it out of the bark and put it in SH and it took off like a shot! It grew 3 new leaves and at least that many new roots during the next year.

Now it's been about 3 months and the plant is back to not growing at all. I haven't moved it at all and the only thing I did different is that I started adding a tiny bit of fertilizer to the jug of water I use. It was just a 20-20-20 fertilizer and I maybe added a 1/4 tsp to the gallon of water.

This might just be normal phal growing activity, I don't know, but it was doing so good and now it's not so I thought I would ask. Heck, maybe it's just "winding up" for another growth spurt!

Thanks for any thoughts.
-ken

P.S. It's Dtps. Siam Treasure, if anyone's interested.

[bonsai1504]

might be resting after all that growth and getting ready to produce a bloom spike. i don't know if this is right but it might be! maybe a more experienced grower can chime in.

[Ray]

Tell us more about your overall conditions, and how often you are watering/feeding.

[schwing]

i water it a couple times a week. I top it off and let the water run out the holes until it levels out. This last jug of water was the first time I really fertilized it. I have it at my office sitting 3 or 4 feet from a west window. It gets light from the overhead flourescents and indirect light from the window. It gets normal office temperatures where the thermostat is one of those timed thingees.

Like my first post, it grew 3 new leaves once I put it in SH and now has just kind of stopped. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

-ken

[John]

Hi Ken, My guess for what its worth is that it is just resting. It sounds like you are doing everything right. As long as the plant looks healthy I would just wait and see what happens.
John

[schwing]

Just to follow-up on this. So I read somewhere that if you stop watering a phal for a couple weeks that it will initiate some root growth. Well this has turned out to be the case for this little guy. I let it dry out for about a week and then looked at it the middle of the next week. Sure enough a new root started to form at the top and is now growing down towards the potting medium. I began watering it again and this new root is growing well. No new leaves or flower spikes, but at least it's doing something.

[Brooke]

The drying out didn't tell it to grow a root, it was just time to grow. Phals don't grow roots and leaves all the time, they do rest on occasion.

Now you need it to spike.

Brooke

[quiltergal]

Some Dtps are summer bloomers so you may not see much activity until late spring. Growing leaves and roots are good, but they tend to slow down this time of year.