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Should I cut the spike on my phals?

16 years ago

Hi Everyone,

I'm an orchid newbie with a phal. question. I have a small plant I rescued last year from a local grocery store - it was in terrible shape with cracked leaves, a lifeless spike, and was completely parched. I brought it home, tried to benevolently neglect it over the year (I can get a bit overzealous with my plants...), and, lo and behold, it bloomed throughout March and April. Now that the blooms are spent, should I trim the spike down or leave it be?

I have another healthy phal. in the same south-facing window that's growing vigorously but shows no interest in flowering. On that particularly plant I followed advice I'd been given about cutting the spike back after flowering - was this a mistake?

Finally, I have a THIRD phal. in full bloom that appears to be putting up a new spike. The tip, however, appears to have either been cut or otherwise blunted in the nursery...there's no bud tip at the end and it has clearly been broken or cut at some point. Does that mean I should not obsessively stare at the stalk over the coming months and wait for flowers?

Thanks for your help!

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Comments (6)

wetfeet101b
16 years ago
I would wait for the spike to dry up before cutting.
When the spike is still fresh, fluids can still pass through along the length of the spike. This means that pathogens could enter the wound and make its way down to the plant.

Once the spike has dried up, this fluid flow would stop and it is safe to cut the spike.
arthurm
16 years ago
Here is the miniature orchid mentioned in the FAQ. The spike is cut off at the base after flowering and this procedure has been followed for at least six years. The orchid is alive and well.
{{gwi:140899}}tigv
Here is what happens if you cut down to a node.
{{gwi:139414}}
Take note of what Wetfeet is saying and make a decision.
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Violacea (the phal you linked to) is definitely one of the species that continues to bloom off the same spike for several years. It is one of the ancestors of many of the novelty "reds" I mentioned. The light green leaves are characteristic, and so is the short spike. I would keep the spike as long as the plant looks healthy and continues to put out new leaves. I have cut the spike off a couple of this type when the roots were compromised and the leaves got wilty, but leave the spike alone otherwise. Good luck. These are my favorite type of phal. I absolutely love them. I would also like to add that I cut the spikes off phals for aesthetic reasons-- a tall spike starts to look really ugly with just one or two flowers on it. But that isn't true of short-spike plants. They look fine with just one or two flowers on the short spike. Enjoy your flowers.
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Hi! ^ ^ I think it could be of use to someone if I type out my experience. Perhaps a collection of experiences will lead to some form of conclusion of the hypothesis about lighting etc. It began when one of my two orchids had a nasty little pussy cat tip over it's pot. The orchid's spike severed completely off. Since my orchids both bloom at the same time I cut the spike off the other orchid. Of both the spikes, the yellow had 2 blooms (1 bud spike was 6 inches long). The purple had 8 buds (one bloom spike was 10 inches long) which is the one the cat had tipped over. I will also note that I put the purple stem immediately into water since I had heard the plant crash. I have had both spikes into a clear glass vase (about 1-1.5 cup of water) in a pitch black game room except light from the teli and monitors. To be more specific the vase is in the shadow of the "light". The temp is always around 78 degrees fahrenheit. I enjoyed the blooms for a couple of weeks and the large bloomed ones finally started to look fatigued so I pinched those off (about 4-5). The rest dropped off by themselves. I totally forgot about these stems/spikes. Here is where it gets interesting, about 2-3 month later I was dusting and cleaning up the "mess" at the sink when I noticed the yellow spike was still green at the end, the purple was brown so I cut it under water to a healthy green looking point. I had decided regardless of the various postings on the intraweb saying that a spike couldn't grow roots I would still let these two try. It now has been 5 months, the yellow has a small root growing at the end, the purple is still green. They are in the pitch black room, I change the water sporadically from every 4 days to 3 weeks with tepid from faucet. Basically when I remember the poor babies but more so at the beginning than now (which changes now I see a little root). I will also mention I was using the cities icky chlorinated fluoride injected tap water, I will now change to bottled water and watch the results.
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I have two 18W (cool and warm) and on the side two 15W (cool and warm). I know it is not much of the light probably, but commercial lights will be too heavy for this stand. I am not sure about my zone...I live in Montreal, Canada. During a day for a few hours the plant is under the full sun ( when we have sun). It is very warm in my house, the highest temperature could be 32 C. I use humidifier at all times, and during a night I put a plastic cover over the stand with plants as it helps to creat humidity up to 100% (according to the humidity tester). http://i038.radikal.ru/0712/fb/c1b8ad6a8e5a.jpg [IMG]http://i037.radikal.ru/0712/6d/6a212c7813be.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i026.radikal.ru/0712/ff/26a3524aec2b.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i010.radikal.ru/0712/9c/3ca940037947.jpg[/IMG]
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highjack
16 years ago
Nice pulcherrima x parishii cross arthurm. Did it inherit the long annoying spike of the Doritis or was it lucky and get the much shorter spike of the parishii?

In situ, who cuts the spikes off of the phals?

Brooke
mrbreeze
16 years ago
"In situ, who cuts the spikes off of the phals? "

Squirrels.
baronessblixen
Original Author
16 years ago
Okay - wait I shall. Thanks for the information. Any thoughts on my blunted flower stalk on Phal. #3?
arthurm
16 years ago
Baroness, if there are some nodes on the stalk with the broken end you might get a side branch to spike, otherwise it probably will do nothing.

"in situ, who cuts the spikes off of the phals?" That statement applies to any aspect of any branch of horticulture. I could stop all work on my messy garden (casual cottage) and what would be the result?

I'll be a an orchid show in a few weeks time and if the customer is just buying a Phal. as a cheap bunch of flowers, i'll tell them the cut down to the node stuff, but, i like to think that people asking questions here are interested in growing better flowers.

Here is the story of Betty (again). Betty was a great orchid grower. she had a collection of thousands of orchids and won the annual championship at several orchid societies many times.

Now those Championships are won by people who have big collections across many Genera and you get points for just benching a plant. She had this species Phal. that bloomed for years and years. It had a long, long spike with hundreds of flower scars and a few sad dispirited flowers at the end. It was benched in the species other section year after year just to gain that one precious point.

Brooke, not sure of the latest name for Phal. decumbens. It seems to have had many names over the years. The plant pictured in an above post is a mini 3 inches high with 3 inch leaves, just the ticket for the narrow windowsill in the kitchen.

The flower spike is not very long, but is a sequential bloomer, so i go SNIP at the base after enjoying the display for three months or so.

Blooms like clockwork, every summer.

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