Stalled flower spike

[camille1585]

Phal speciosa and tetraspis are known to be among the most finicky and difficult to bloom species as the range of conditions they'll do well in is rather narrow. These are pretty much obligate warm growers and will not bloom if not kept warm. Many Phal species will do well very well in intermediate temps with max temps not much higher than 75F, but for some, like tetraspis, that just isn't warm enough and they do much better if kept over 80F.

A low of 66F is probably pushing it and 76F might not be warm enough during the day.


I have a Phal speciosa hybrid that does exactly the same as yours (despite getting the same food and conditions as all my other Phals), and I really should get a heat mat for it. My temps are ideal for it only about 2 months of the year... I was hoping that hybrid vigor would make it more temperature tolerant but that clearly wasn't the case...


Another point, some Phals do not bloom immediately on new spikes. I have a Phal lueddemanniana which only blooms from 1year+ spikes. The first year the spike looks like yours does, but I don't know if this is typical behavior for tetraspis. My other lueddemanniana behaves normally and blooms right away...

[Dimples]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Another point, some Phals do not bloom immediately on new spikes. I have a Phal lueddemanniana which only blooms from 1year+ spikes.

Neat! I wouldn't have thought waiting a year to bloom after expending energy to grow a spike would be a good adaptation strategy, but it must benefit some of them in their natural habitat somehow.

[Jinh]

Originally Posted by camille1585

A low of 66F is probably pushing it and 76F might not be warm enough during the day.

The temp gauge had just been reset, with the lights on during the day it actually gets up to 86 now. So hopefully that will be sufficient.

I didn’t realize Tetrapsis were so finicky when I made the purchase, I guess I’ll have to go down a google rabbit hole.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Jinh

The temp gauge had just been reset, with the lights on during the day it actually gets up to 86 now. So hopefully that will be sufficient.

I didn’t realize Tetrapsis were so finicky when I made the purchase, I guess I’ll have to go down a google rabbit hole.

This is what I have been told by some Phal growers at least, when I was asking why my speciosa cross was never blooming! If you find more information, please do share!

[Jinh]

Originally Posted by camille1585

This is what I have been told by some Phal growers at least, when I was asking why my speciosa cross was never blooming! If you find more information, please do share!

I found this and thought it had quite a bit of excellent information.

https://youtu.be/b60uta78tSM