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Once my orchid finished blooming and dropped its petals I cut the… | The Orchid Oasis | Communauté Planta

Alexis

Once my orchid finished blooming and dropped its petals I cut the stem above the second node, but haven’t seen any new growth yet. I’m wondering if I did this right?

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12 commentaires

  1. Jen

    A couple things regarding reblooming phals… 1) if your stem is browning vs still green, you will not see future blooms from that spike. Yours seems to be dried out, and you can probably go ahead and cut it down to the base. 2) when cutting a green spike in hopes of a second blooming, you should cut about a 1/2 inch above the last growth node before the flowers started blooming. So, usually further up the spike. 3) even if you had a green spike and cut in the right place, you still really only have about a 50/50 chance of getting a second set of blooms. Because that second set tends to be much smaller in number and sometimes size of the flowers, some growers just cut the spike to the base after their flowers fall. It allows the plant to focus on vegetative growth (vital structures like leaves and roots), and allows it to store up enough energy for next year’s blooming. I tend to lean this way, for sure, since it contributes to the overall health of the orchid and a much nicer blooming when it comes.

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    • Women are Water

      Thank you for this information. I am new to orchids but finding that I love them but was wondering what to do. This answers a lot of my questions. I was cutting them off after they finished but wasn’t sure it that was ok.

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    • Alexis

      This is so helpful! I’m gonna cut it off thanks!

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    • Jen

      It’s ok to trim the flower spike, and ok to cut it all the way down to the base- it’s really a matter of opinion. But it’s good to know the reasoning behind both choices.

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  2. Jen

    Can I also recommend that you not put water all over your leaves and the crown? You run the risk of causing multiple types of infection by leaving water on your plant, and there is no benefit to the orchid at all. Just water the bark mix. Crown rot is a serious hazard.

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    • Bibliofan

      Beginner here Jen. Why then does Planta have me mist my orchids? I’ve never misted any of my plants before, but started when I joined Planta. I even bought a plant mister that has a very fine spray.

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    • CharcoalCorvid

      I’ve found that the advice Planta gives may be more useful in a broad sense, and that advice is not necessarily perfect for every specific, individual plant a person might have. I’ve had to adjust watering dates for severeal plants that Planta wanted me to water more often than necessary. Misting is a way to temporarily increase humidity for some plants so the app might recommend that for everything as a humidity increasing solution. For orchids, if water sits in the crown too long it can cause the leaves to rot. You can totally still mist lightly if you feel there is a benefit, everybody has different ways of growing plants after all, but it’s best to make sure that water doesn’t settle in the crown where the leaves meet if you do so, or remain sitting on the leaves for extended periods of time.

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    • Botanical Hack

      I’ve always found that to be interesting in that in nature these plants are typically getting their water from rain and that rain is not going to know that it needs to avoid the leaves. The water in the pic looks like a misting. Is the problem getting water on the leaves or doing it too frequently, or not having enough airflow to speed up evaporation, or something else?

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    • MeasomerPi

      I think the problem noted is that water has the opportunity to collect in the crown, which can lead to crown rot. In my opinion, the question of rainfall has more to do with the artificial conditions we are cultivating the plants in vs the environments they evolved to live in. The majority of us have plants that grow upwards (pot to sky) which create perfect little vases to hold water (at the crown where the new leaves form and at the juncture between leaves and stem). Most of these growing spaces are not subject to drying breezes. In the wild, phalaenopsis typically grip onto trees or other objects, growing outwards instead of upwards, thus eliminating most of the little pockets for problematic moisture to collect. And in the tree canopy, they get plenty of air movement to facilitate evaporation. I personally don’t mist, partly because I am lazy and partly because the research I’ve done on the matter doesn’t show any significant value as weighed against the risks. But lots of people mist and claim great success. Ultimately it’s a personal choice.

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    • Alexis

      Yes I follow the misting for them! I haven’t seen any water accumulate in the crowns, and don’t spray the flowers when they’re there. I mainly do it to keep the roots a bit more moist since it is in very porous orchid soil

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