---
title: "After my orchid turned brown I cut it all the way down to the base. I…"
description: "After my orchid turned brown I cut it all the way down to the base. I do water it about once à week, but do people recommend using orchid plant food? I have…"
url: "https://getplanta.com/community/lZ7uAE3pQ86jnFGxrCwLrg/650377c529555a54e59e6446"
community: "Anything about plants"
author: "Jessie Stratton Zhou"
published: "2023-09-14T21:14:45.607Z"
language: "en"
image: "https://images.getplanta.com/v1/resize/yp4w1VlSpDZJoYT3DMqm_kvwBP5MprCGUo0mCVTOcug/2d3cc09c8d0c40a0ab62af009b9441d4.webp?size=large"
---

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# After my orchid turned brown I cut it all the way down to the base. I…

_Posted by Jessie Stratton Zhou on 2023-09-14_

After my orchid turned brown I cut it all the way down to the base. I do water it about once à week, but do people recommend using orchid plant food? I have some and used it for a bit (I think it’s what caused the flowers to turn brown, which was my error) but not in a while and am just wondering, during this season of no growth, should I water and use plant food still as regularly?

![Attachment 1 of 1](https://images.getplanta.com/v1/resize/yp4w1VlSpDZJoYT3DMqm_kvwBP5MprCGUo0mCVTOcug/2d3cc09c8d0c40a0ab62af009b9441d4.webp?size=large)

## 6 comments

### Michelle commented on 2023-09-14

I use orchid food once a week on mine whether it’s in bloom or not!

#### Jessie Stratton Zhou replied on 2023-09-14

Perfect!

### GreenLeaf commented on 2023-09-14

I’m not sure if I’m seeing this correctly….you cut all the leaves off and left the stem?

I believe the advice about cutting it to the base was referring to that stem you’ve got there, and you probably should have left the leaves (even if some of them were yellowing).

But whats done is done! As long as the roots still look healthy I would just keep doing what your doing and cross your fingers something will happen. But I’m not sure if it’ll come back… I’m definitely not an orchid expert though.

#### Jessie Stratton Zhou replied on 2023-09-15

The whole thing turned brown including the leaves 😅 I got my plant food and the first time I used it I accidentally sprayed the flowers, not realizing I shouldn’t have. So it may have caused the browning, but in the end all the flowers and leaves turned brown so I removed them, yes. It was only about 3 weeks with flowers, maybe 4, so I’m not sure if I killed it or if I shortened the bloom time. Am I watering a dead plant every week? I really can’t tell.

### Nina commented on 2023-09-15

If there are no leaves I doubt it will grow. It needs photosynthesis. Orchid food should not have killed the whole plant

#### Jessie Stratton Zhou replied on 2023-09-16

Huh. Well I sprayed it once before I realized I shouldn’t spray the flowers. And I diligently watered each week, and used plant food, but the flowers all fell off and the two big leaves turned yellow, then brown. So I cut them off. Was that a mistake?

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