Hi, Liz. Well, I've done that, too. I did it on the first bloom of a waxy purple seedling I was absolutely dying to see.

The trick, as you probably know, is to tie it loose and then tighten it just a little bit every few days or so.

But your question: it's very likely to branch if there are any nodes (the little green triangle things buds and branches come out of) below the break. My purple seedling branched and put out a new spike for good measure.

I've also had branches and/or new spikes or even both from other phals broken for other reasons.

My (thankfully limited) experience has been that when the blooming urge is on them, they just find another way to bloom. One Doritis pulcherrima spike I broke, I did tape, and it branched from under the tape! The broken tip gradually browned off as the branch grew.

It's still a very disheartening thing, tho. :(

Thanks, mehitabel, for the encouragement. I plan to leave the tape and see what happens. There are nodes below the break and, as you said, hopefully the urge to bloom is there! I must tell you that since I took your advice and repotted my little collection of phals in spagh, they have really taken off. I'm excited to see all the new leaves and spikes, so thanks so much for sharing that knowledge with me. I have learned so much from this site, the knowledge out there is amazing. Happy Growing, Liz

Hey, Liz. Good idea. I was honestly astounded to find the spike branch worming its way back out from under the tape.

Delighted to hear the sphag works for you. Thanks for telling me :) I love the stuff because phal roots do seem to plain love it.

Don't know if you saw this hint from Brooke and Lagoon here about fluffing and aerating sphag even more by adding perlite and tree fern. I started doing that after we had a week of rain in the fall that really compacted the sphag, lowered it a good inch or more in the pots.

I like the effect of the mix. The perlite and tree fern seem to keep the sphag lighter and more open. Or maybe just that it fluffs up a lot from the mixing. But it is nice. Hasn't been out in a week of rain yet, tho.

Just something to try if you feel like it next time you have to repot. OTOH, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Happy growing to you, too :)

I love the addition of the tree fern to sphag. The little "sticks" won't let the sphag collapse and compact on itself. It permits air to always be available to the roots.

I've never tried perlite because all I ever have on hand is the small perlite unless I pick it out of something else. If I ever order the big perlite, I'm sure I will try it.

Brooke

Liz, I've found several ways to get rid of spikes. The worst was when I didn't have my contacts in and confused one plant with another and cut off what I thought was the spent spike. Ack. Of course, I cut it so close to the leaf that there was nothing to start another spike, and it missed the whole year. Must not've had a very strong survival instinct.

This year, I proved spikes don't stretch when you try to move the too-tight twistie up the stake. Geesh. There was one node left, and it's branching from there.

Here's to your Phal blooming for you.

Whitecat8

Brooke and Mehitabel -- do you know where can I find reasonably priced tree fern online? I'm pretty sure I wouldn't find it locally. I would like to try it with the spagh. Does the perlite have to be large? I have a bag of the smallish stuff on hand.

Whitecat8, I feel your pain. So far, the spike above the break still looks healthy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Here's a good one, though not an "orchid story". I had a bunch of amaryllis ready to be cut down for their resting period. Mixed in with them was a very old, large Clivia. Well, I did not have my glasses on, and sliced every leaf off of the clivia, right down to the soil line. After I packed away all the amaryllis, I noticed my clivia was missing and I had an "oh noooo" moment. I unpacked the amaryllis box and there was the poor leafless clivia. This story does have a happy ending: the clivia is putting out new leaves, although it will be several years before it blooms -- if ever. And, to add insult to injury, it was a pricey yellow-flowering clivia!

LOL, Liz. Your clivia story is (please forgive) too funny. I'm glad it's recovering.

Actually, I did something like that to a phal spike a month or so ago. Meant to keep a spike on a violacea hybrid, and in a mindless moment, snip!

What a coincidence! Great minds and all that. I just this second started a thread inspired by this one. Please add your clivia story to it.

You can get tree ferm from Carter and Holmes or from Cal West. Get the coarse or medium kind. The fine is too powdery. If it's too long, you can break small portions of it with your hands or by pushing on a pile of it with something like a clay pot. The smaller pieces then fall to the bottom. I use pieces broken down to app two inches or so.

You can also get various sizes of perlite from Cal West. They call it Rok, I think. However, I confess I couldn't figure out their grading system as they offer grades by number, so I'm not sure I really got the biggest kind. It was a little bigger than the HD kind.

However, the HD kind seems ok to me. I had a bag around that I used before buying more.

It's not terribly expensive if you are going to do a number of orchids. 1/4 cubic foot of either tree fern or perlite will do a lot of orchids. And you use less sphag.

I think just the act of mixing the sphag with the tree fern and perlite fluffs it up so you use a lot less sphag. Which is mostly good, unless you are a severe underwaterer.