Phal blooming length?

[Spirytman]

What is the longest you have experienced a blooming Phalaenopsis? Ive had one that bloomed for almost 9 months! Has anyone heard of that or had one that bloomed longer?

[ksriramkumar]

Yes. very healthy Phals can bloom profusely from the same inflorescence for months. I have one that had bloomed for 9 months last year and inflorescence is still green and I see new branching and buds on the same inflorescence this year

[andreaemilia]

Hello
I had one of my white phals blooming from the same spike for almost 1 year. As the flowers wilted away, the same spike kept growing a new ramification after the other with 3-4 blooms on each. By the time the spike finished flowering a second spike emerged from the base of the plant so when I cut down the first spike Iallready had a second one with buds. So the plant itself bloomed continuosly for more than 18 month

[Spirytman]

That's amazing! I think that might be the way my mini Phal is headed. It's been almost a year now and I still have three flowers on the stem. Awesome!
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[andreaemilia]

Your phal must be really happy. Good luck with it.

[T4tlrman]

Do tell Sman, you've got MORE than luck going for you... what's the secret? More details please

[Spirytman]

I wish I knew the secret. The only thing I can really say is that I have a very bright kitchen with south facing windows the walls are white and I never get direct sunlight on the plants. I have fluorescent lights in my kitchen and I have a vaulted ceiling. so at night I put the lights on and I have natural light fluorescent bulbs in the fixtures.
I live in the Northeast and I have a lot of really tall trees in my backyard I believe they help filter out the sun.
As far as temperature goes, I like to keep it comfortable usually I like to keep temperature around 68° to 75° in the house but in the fall I open up all my windows and let it cool down usually to around 55° it's what we call in my house the cooldown period. My wife likes to get a lot of fresh air in the fall. It's just something that we've done for years. I never even knew that the orchids needed to cool down. So it was a happy accident I guess.
So that's it... now you know all of my so-called secrets. I hope this answers some if your questions.
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[kdennis14]

yes, Sman....help us out here.
Karen

[T4tlrman]

I wish I knew the secret. The only thing I can really say is that I have a very bright kitchen with south facing windows the walls are white and I never get direct sunlight on the plants. I have fluorescent lights in my kitchen and I have a vaulted ceiling. so at night I put the lights on and I have natural light fluorescent bulbs in the fixtures.
I live in the Northeast and I have a lot of really tall trees in my backyard I believe they help filter out the sun.
As far as temperature goes, I like to keep it comfortable usually I like to keep temperature around 68° to 75° in the house but in the fall I open up all my windows and let it cool down usually to around 55° it's what we call in my house the cooldown period. My wife likes to get a lot of fresh air in the fall. It's just something that we've done for years. I never even knew that the orchids needed to cool down. So it was a happy accident I guess.
So that's it... now you know all of my so-called secrets. I hope this answers some if your questions.
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Not gonna tell, eh? S'ok - you don't have to say whether you use a 10-10-10 fertilizer, what media you use, if you feed nutrient supplements or anything else relevant... (but if we're ever on "Survivor" together I'm gonna get you voted, "Outa Here!") Jus' Kiddin'

[Spirytman]

Okay T didn't realize that's what you were looking to see. Truth be told I have never used fertilizer. I wouldn't know what a 10 1010 fertilizing mix is if you smacked me with it. All I've done like I said was put the plants in orchid bark mix and voilÃ**. The orchid bark mix consists of a mixture of miracle grow course blend and better grow special mix for my Dendrobium. for my mini phals, I still have them in the sphagnum Moss that they came in. I've been waiting for them to stop blooming so that I can repot them but as of now, they are still blooming.

I actually was going to ask about fertilizer and whether or not I should use it but I haven't gotten around to asking a question yet but here it is.
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