Small blooming growths

[Pleurothallidan]

This is a Paph. wardii, I purchased last year. It bloomed on a 6 leaf growth for me. It then made two leads over the last year, one that is currently in spike and another smaller one that hasn't taken off yet. The growth that is in spike seems rather small to me I think it is 4 leaves total. Two really tiny ones and the two huge ones you can see in the picture. I'm thinking it might be because I grow at much higher light than it was previously grown in? The leaves are also much more erect on this growth versus spreading on the older growth. Anyone have experience with something like this? Any comments appreciated.

I'd much prefer that it make more leaves before blooming... I think it would be more aestheticaly pleasing.

 

[mrhappyrotter]

I experience it semi-regularly with certain Paphs in my collection. Most frequent offenders tend to be Parvies (Pavisepalum) and "Maudiae" types, which I suppose in a very broad sense, wardii would fall into.

Unfortunately, I don't know what the cause is. I haven't seen a strong correlation with much of any cultural issues. Perhaps there are multiple potential causes or maybe it's just something that specific clones/cultivars are predisposed to. Hope others have some suggestions.

Typically, I cut the spike as soon as I am 100% positive that the growth is blooming prematurely. Even though these plants almost always appear to be healthy and in good condition when it starts, they can sometimes exhaust themselves and may even bloom themselves to death. By removing the spike, I feel that I am forcing the plant to reserve its energy for new leaves and roots as well as future non-premature blooms.

 

[Morja]

My delenatii did that this year too!
When I saw the bud coming up I was shocked because I expected more leaves, and also it seemed early. The new growth, first in my care, is very perky compared to the flat older growth. I have two thoughts about it.

This plant grew an absolutely massive root system over the initial year that I had it, so maybe it had enough vigor to do this, but that said...

It was in the care of someone else for a week and ended up sitting in water for probably most of that week, right at the year mark of owning it. This brought all the root tip growth to a brown halt. No roots technically rotted, but it was obviously a bit stressed out. It started its sheath a couple of months later in early fall.

I think it bloomed due to to stress, possibly. But I guess I can't know for sure. I ended up cutting the spike just as it came fully open because I got a thrips infestation at that point. Fun fun. So, at least the flowers weren't allowed to stress it out further (...just thrips!).

Again I'm not 100% sure if this was a random culture thing (it was slightly to the side of my grow light which may explain the perky growth), or something else.

Most recent growth, in contrast with older growth (which has lost several leaves over time and is still just as big, and flat).

 

[Tom-DE]

Morja, there is nothing wrong with your delenatii IMO...
Dan, Paph. wardii is a shade-loving plant. It is not a leafy plant in general--each growth may have just 3-4 leaves or so(on all growths of my wardii and I grow it shady), and the pike may take 2-3 months to develop. Some growths might produce fewer or more leaves due to light level or moisture level. The leaves of the new growth of your plant will grow more and level off eventually...
If I were you, I would keep the spike and grow it less light...
**I always take all internet advice with a grain of salt.

 

[Happypaphy7]

I let my plants do their thing. Never had problems that way. They will bloom when they want.
Many species are highly seasonal even under artificial environments and bloom at certain time of the year. If for whatever reason the growth did not have enough time to develop, it may still spike and bloom regardless of the size. Totally normal especially if there's an older growth to support the whole plant as is the case with your plant.
I have spicerianum in multiple buds at the moment. Some growths have enough number of leaves while others have barely two leaves, yet they are all in spike because this is when they spike and bloom for me.

 

[Pleurothallidan]

Thanks everyone for your input. I'm probably going to just leave it to bloom. I'll note if the quality of the flower is any different than last years blooming.

 

[BrucherT]

I think your plant looks great, including the little-growth spike. As described, you grew a massive root system and that is likely enabling this exuberance. I say just enjoy, repot when the bloom ends or you're done with it and treat with KelPak to stimulate roots from the new growths; sometimes if I don't repot after blooming I notice that these smaller growths don't put down their own roots and/or send those annoying, useless nubbiny roots out high off the substrate.

 

[tnyr5]

Yep. It's usually a result of light being on the higher side of what they can handle and/or environmental conditions that trigger their flowering as soon as the growth is big enough to support it.

 

[Stone]

Speculation... Flowering is triggered by hormone secretion driven by environmental factors. Therefore, it may be that when our plants flower on ''premature'' growths they are possibly out of sync with what they would normally experience in the habitat but even that may change from year to year... It might come down to an insufficient rest period and/or temperature issues (too warm when dormant?) Usually many temperate climate plants build up reserves of carbohydrates during the months going into dormancy. They then use this to push new growth in spring even before any root activity.
Perhaps if these carbohydrates are low it may be late to come into growth or do so with less vigor in spring and matures a growth late and then maybe starts too early the next year and so on. So it's always slightly ahead or behind where it could be. That theory would be very hard to test of course. I have a wardii coming into flower on a newly matured growth right now and it's early summer here so who knows. If it's supposed to bloom in early spring then mine is quite late and the new growth will also start late.
You might find your wardii will bloom on a mature growth from the little one starting in the centre of the picture next year...

 

[Happypaphy7]

Regardless of the size of the growth, if it's big enough whether individual growth or more importantly (in my logic) overall plant mass is there to support itself, it will bloom when it's time to bloom.
It happens all the time with lots of plants. There really isn't set size to be considered blooming size.
At the moment, I have a multiple-growths Paphiopedilum shooting up a few spikes on growths of various sizes. For me winter is late fall into winter is when they come into spike. No matter what size the growths (4-5 leaves per growth is what is probably typically considered a mature size) from "typical" to just two leaves, they all spike if they want to.
I've also had Paphs that took forever to bloom for the first time. It had a lot of leaves. Once it bloomed though, the subsequent growths would bloom on much smaller growths with only 2-3 leaves each. I saw this pattern more commonly on a large clumps of bulldog (or its ancestor species type) paphs. When in season, they would all just shoot up their spike on many growths of various size.

 

[Happypaphy7]

Some of my vinicolor Maudiae type hybrids did the same.
A well grown single growth plant in bloom for the time is the stage when I buy them. Some would already have one or two tiny starts but often not present until after the flower has fallen off.
Most of them grow and bloom the second year and the size of those second growths were all over the place. Some were as large as the first growth but most were smaller, some much smaller bearing only two leaves. These were strong growing plants.
Those with rather weak or slow growing habit would take two years to grow and bloom again. Overall pattern was still similar.
The larger the overall mass of the plant, the smaller the subsequent individual blooming fans were.

One of my latest example being this very dark vini hybrid (no tag but it looks typical of vini Maudiae x charlesworthii) I purchased here in Berlin from a Dutch vendor in the summer. It came in bud with two smaller growths near the base of the plant.
By the time the first flower fell off, much smaller second growth was in bloom. Then, even smaller tiny third growth followed.

 

[Pleurothallidan]

I've noticed the same on another one of my larger Paph wardiis that I purchased last year with a large growth. Every subsequent growth has been smaller when it bloomed, but post-blooming, the leaves continue to enlarge until eventually reaching the same-ish size as the initial mature growth I got it as, though with maybe 1-2 fewer leaves.

This other plant also is on its third blooming cycle this year.