A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Q and update about epi

my epi seems to be doing well. its got 4 sprouts and lots of roots. the only thing is that none of the sprouts are widening into leaves? they are all long and narrow like stems. i know the leaves aren't really leaves, but modified, flattened stems, but none of these stems seem to be doing that. i water it when it gets dry with 20-20-20 orchid fertilizer at half strength. one of the new stems is about 8 inches long!

i thought maybe it wasn't getting enough light, so i made a hanger for it out of hemp and hung it up closer to the light. these new stems also have roots poking out all over them. the other new sprouts range from 3 inches, to 1 inch.

overall its doing good. i just didn't know if this was normal for it to reach up stems and that the "Leaves" will come later?

You may be over-fertilizing, I'm not sure. I tend to use fertilizer at a much greater dilution, but anyway, the growth is perfect! Happy epi's do tend to put out these long cylindrical stems. Generally they widen at the ends when they reach their ultimate length (so yours are still growing) and put out other stems from the lower part and leaves from the upper, leaf-like part. Great for yours!