Watering orchids with vodka

[Ray]

I think back-growths tend to be more like "storage tanks" for the colony, rather than resource producers that the more recent, active growths are.

Like everything else, I'm sure it's both, but I think the priority shifts with age, suggesting that 3 newer growths, even without an active rhizome tip, are likely to have more overall "vitality" than is a division of three older growths. The older ones will just be starting at a "lower" point, so may take longer to regain their past glory.