flower size

[hohcs]

hi all,

i know that the size of flowers increases with age. i have some phals which i bought last year. this year, they flower, some are bigger than last year but some are smaller, one in particular is distinctively smaller. i saw the buds developing and thought they will not bloom so soon. but they did. so it is like premature babies, very small. do you think it is the fertilizers i used? i use smu and the regular balanced fertilizers alternately. the colors remain the same and actually deeper than last year when i bought them, just do not understand why they are smaller.

any advice welcome, thanks.

chung

[uncasteeb]

Culture plays a major part in flower size , i know this from my Phals.I had 1 in my front room all winter & it extended it,s spike.Temps & conditions in my front room are a lot poorer than the growroom & the resulting flowers were very small in comparison to the first 1,s in the growroom.
Maybe that plant is lacking in 1 of it,s cultral needs.Maybe light levels not high enough.
I don,t change fert levels or frequency of fertilising for my Phals & they seem to spike & bloom fairly well in my conditions.

[LJA]

When that happens, the problem is definitely culture related, but it's going to be very hard to pinpoint what, exactly, was lacking. Phals really need steady conditions of moisture, fertilizer, and light to do their best. Consistently damp, as Liz said in another thread, "like a damp sponge," with a steady supply of nutrients. Flowers will decrease in count and size if, during spike development, you interrupt your program by letting the plant get too dry before watering or suddenly giving it too much water to "help" the flowers along. Many people do that without even knowing it; they see a spike and think "more water, more fertilizer" then act on that when they should just be continuing their regular routine as if the spike wasn't even there. Chung, think back carefully (and honestly) about whether you changed your routine when you saw a spike coming, and next time, don't make those changes, whatever they might have been. For Phal hybrids, keep your conditions as even and steady as possible.