brassia and intergenerics question

do new pbs+leaves have only one chance to throw up a spike? (or phrased another way) do plants have only one chance/window at spike initiation?

ive got a brassia mem fritz boedecker 'witch doctor' which has 4 or 5 new-ish leads (i say 'new-ish' because the pbs are plumping up slightly, and the leaves are getting to be the size of the leaves on the mature pbs). they are all about the same age. only one of these new-ish leads initiated a spike a couple of months ago (i also got the plant to bloom last winter). will the other pbs give me flowers as well? if not, any thoughts as to why?

do they lose the ability to flower after a certain amount of time has passed? there are some older pbs that i know have never spiked....are they just too old?

i know, i know....everyone wants to know if their plants will flower. thats why we grow em, right?

Don't know, and that's a good question for other types of orchids as well. My onc seems to flower every other new PB - one flowers, the next doesn't, the next does. Don't know why. Have always wondered if that means the ones that don't never will.

Good question, I'll be curious what the answe is.

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OrchidTraci

i was just thinking about this specimen-sized plant today - i usually ignore it, and its doing great. now im getting spikes, which is a good sign. but why not more? after all, im giving each of the different pbs the same culture....im not lavishing special care on just one pb in order to flower it.

maybe someone who knows the answer can chime in!

That really depends. If you have 5 new growths at the same time then they can bloom at different times. Some can grow a bit faster and such. I think they lose the ability to bloom when a new growth grows off the old PB. So, until you get a new growth growing off of the newer PB, you still have a chance for them to bloom.

Kewpie, yes, there is a "window." On those, if a new growth doesn't spike within the year of the growth's appearance, it won't, especially if, as Persistence said, it itself has already begun to sprout a new growth. I've never heard anyone explain why, though. I always figured it was because the plant was funneling its energy into certain growths and not others, which it will do if conditions for all the new growths to spike aren't just exactly perfect. In other words, If you want to get each new growth on the plants to spike, the conditions you're growing them under have to be absolutely ideal, and that's a tough one, even for people who have been growing for a very long time.

But if the plant has 5 new growths and only one of them is spiking, you might try increasing your light level to get the others to initiate.

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Louis J. Aszod

kewpie you gotta think of the plant as a whole, an not a bunch of little ones.
instead of each PB under less then ideal conditions throwing out one flower each, they will gather energy and throw out 5 flowers on one spike.

good to know....fritz seems really happy. its got great roots with active tips, tons of new leads, and pale leaves (ive got it at s-se window plus its 7-8 inches away from some fluorescent lights). from what ive read, the pale leaves mean that its getting a lot of sun, right?

the only thing im not good about doing is switching to a low nitrogen fertilizer. this guy blooms twice a year, so should i be fertilizing with a 'blooming' fertilizer all year long?

thanks, everyone!

wooooo hooooooo!!!!!

so ive been a little neglectful of my plants lately; and i thought that i should do some watering today.

guess what i found?!?

4 more spikes!!!!

i didnt change anything else...same light, same humidity, same non-fertilizing.

i think that that dry-off period shocked fritz into making more flowers.

i just got one spike from this beast last winter. maybe this winter, ill have more.

just thought id share the good news!

That is awesome, I'd love to see a picture of the whole plant!

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OrchidTraci