It's very interesting - my suspicion is that some sort of stress is triggering this. The pot seems a bit large for the plant...how are the roots? I have had this happen to an unhappy sarchochillus (6 growths off the mother!), although I think those are more prone to making off shoots.

Wow, Calvin, your sarchochillus really went to town!

The Phal was a seedling when I received it. The kind of sphag it was in stayed wet too long, and made me worry. It grew a couple of new leaves and stalled, so I decided to repot in NZ sphag.

Once the little plant was out of the 2" sq. pot, I couldn't get it back in, because its roots were fat, healthy, and long. It has been in a 3" pot since then (with NZ sphag, sm. fir bark, perlite, and sm. charcoal--3:1:1:1). The additional leads followed.

I don't know what the stress would be; it seems to be "happy." It only has two roots, but those are fat and green with pretty velamin above the media.

One root (scabby looking at its top) is facing you at the plant stem and goes right into the sphag. The other root (from the back of the stem) comes up from the pot bottom and emerges from the sphag at your left, behind the biggest leaf. Its growing tip just sealed off.

It's a mystery. Thank you for your thoughts.

Sweetcicely