how many leaves? (multi paphs)

[MoreWater]

just curious... about how many leaves should there be on a healthy mature growth of a multifloral paph like Moustache? (philip x st swith)

I have a habit of killing off the lower leaves, so it would help to know how "behind" my culture is.....

 

[Heather]

Well.... I personally, would say that it has more to do with the leafspan than the number of leaves. And both of those have some of the trickier (read - likes to have more than one growth to bloom) parents.

I've had phils bloom on one mature growth and a start, and other varieties that prefered to first bloom on 4 or 5. roths are notorious for liking more than one growth to be mature between blooming. I'd say size wise with roth, 24", generally. St. Swithin, well, mine was about 24" with a 3-4" new start when it spiked last year.

Not sure that helps, so, FWIW, both my roths (unbloomed with one mature growth) have 4 pairs of leaves. My mature St. Swithin has 3 leaf pairs, and a new start that is 4-5" LS. I have a phil. and a roeb. that both are taking their time blooming and have at least 4 mature growths each (probably need more light, but I've been working on the roths, lately)!

 

[Rick]

Heather is pretty much on it, but there are individual exceptions.

I've been fairly suprized how many single growth roths I've seen blooming these days?!?

If you are loosing leaves at a fast rate, the first thing I would look at is humidity and airflow. If the plant is recycling leaves to stay alive it probably won't have the energy to bloom regardess of how old it is.

 

[MoreWater]

hey thanks. That's helpful. Most of mine are at 3 pairs, which means I've probably only lost about a pair on most. I was concerned that maybe they should have like 6 pairs.

The primary reason for the leaf loss is clearly lack of watering. I've also had some serious loss that appears to have been from low humidity (per responses to one of my earlier Qs), but the RH level is mostly solved now. At last!