Phalaenopsis gigantea - long term growing project

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by tmoney

sorry to hear that camille. i mean the leaf being enourmous is great, but really...that's wierd that it won't spike given how long and how good it looks.

can only send good vibes the plants way!

edit to say: that light doesn't do the pant any justice, hahahaha! sorry....they are horrible for pics, no?!?!

Isn't artificial lighting just terrible??? I took a few photos on the shelves before giving up and holding the plant near the window!

I'm hopeful it will have sufficient energy stored up to bloom next year. Of course it might get mad at me this winter for keeping it too cool (we turned down the thermostat to 18C, but luckily under the lights it goes up to 21-22C...).

[estación seca]

I heard a talk by Norman Fang of Norman's Orchids in which he mentioned flowering in Phal. gigantea. He said the climate where the originate is hot and humid all year. From time to time a cyclone will pass through the area, lowering temperatures for a few days. This triggers flowering.

[tmoney]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Isn't artificial lighting just terrible??? I took a few photos on the shelves before giving up and holding the plant near the window!

I'm hopeful it will have sufficient energy stored up to bloom next year. Of course it might get mad at me this winter for keeping it too cool (we turned down the thermostat to 18C, but luckily under the lights it goes up to 21-22C...).

best of luck! our temps are lower as well...some mornings it’s about 16 in the room. but thankfully the spike is still growing. you guys all make me nervous!!

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I heard a talk by Norman Fang of Norman's Orchids in which he mentioned flowering in Phal. gigantea. He said the climate where the originate is hot and humid all year. From time to time a cyclone will pass through the area, lowering temperatures for a few days. This triggers flowering.

Thanks for the interesting info, though I would love to say that too much heat and humidity is the problem!

Flowering is already triggered on mine, it's just that the spikes don't grow at all once they've appeared.

[camille1585]

An interesting observation about gigantea and winter temps... I thought growth would completely stall this winter since we turned down the heating to reduce our gas bill. Night temp is around 16°C and daytime under the lamps is 19-20°C, however the new leaf has grown an extra 2cm in 12 days. Seems like a pretty happy plant to me, the grow lights must be what is keeping it going!

[Mr.Fakename]

I noticed the same thing here, with very similar temperatures (maybe 1 degree more on average).
While the spike growth came to a stop, the leaf kept developing normally and a new one seems to be coming.

[camille1585]

Seems that gigantea is not an obligate warm-hot grower then? I'm surprised that it has so much plasticity. I do wonder how much bigger the leaf is going to get, it's already 34cm and I still don't see the base of the leaf coming in.

[isurus79]

Mr. Fakename showed William Green and I his gigantea (plus growing tips) and we’ve posted the chat on our respective YouTube channels.

Here’s my video: https://youtu.be/mIHj1er3kfU
Here’s William’s video: https://youtu.be/sj9zovikN68

[tmoney]

well, no flowers yet, but just wanted to get in on the gigantea sunday funday. here is the starship next to a monstera. the spike is still growing, but slowly! the cheap thermo says around 17. it was 16 when i first looked this morning, and that’s been pretty standard for a minute now

even with the heater running for like an hour and a half this morning, haven’t seen much increase in ambient temps

[Jinh]

I’m happy to report my Gigantea is growing its third(!) leaf for this year. Unfortunately it isn’t much to look at right now, I went to Sweden for 2 weeks in August and I thought I had set up a sufficient watering system.

I returned to discover I had not, and all 4 of my leaves were yellowed, leaving only half a green leaf. I was pretty sure I had killed it. But 2 weeks later a new leaf started at the end of August and then in mid November it started its third for the year.

The second leaf is 2-3 inches smaller than the previous ones, and of course the third is still growing. So sadly, I set it back a bit and it looks a bit ratchet, but I suppose at least it means it must have a healthy root system.

I’m hoping to repot it as soon as this new leaf finishes to what I would like to be its final setup.