Staking a flower spike?

[KathyKayserKonig]

Hello Orchid friends!

My new orchid has a small flower spike coming out of the bottom with several buds on it. It is about 4 or 5 inches long right now and I am wondering about staking it, or making it grow up. I am quite sure that if I made it bend up it would snap off or at least break as it does not seem to be flexible in any way. How do you deal with these? Do they become more flexible as the get longer?

Thank you so much for your time!

[Ray]

In such a situation, I bend it very slightly in the direction I want it to grow, and stake it there. As the spike extends, I bend it a bit more farther up the spike, and stake it in place there, and so on. After a couple of adjustments, it'll be close to what you're looking for.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

There's also training the spike with a thin wire.

I was not trained how to do this while I was working at an orchid nursery, but maybe you can look it up on-line or someone here has possibly done it before and can help you.

I've seen other workers at the nursery do it.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Whoa, whoa, whoa...

Back it up. I just re-read your post and it got me thinking...

What kind of Phalaeopsis is this?

Not all Phalaenopsis has "upward" growing spikes.

Some Phals like Phal. bellina, Phal javanica, and Phal violaecea naturally have short pendulous spikes. These are impossible to train.

[KathyKayserKonig]

[QUOTE=King_of_orchid_growing
What kind of Phalaeopsis is this?

Not all Phalaenopsis has "upward" growing spikes.

Some Phals like Phal. bellina, Phal javanica, and Phal violaecea naturally have short pendulous spikes. These are impossible to train.[/QUOTE]

Oh, that is very interesting. As far as I can tell (in using some identification books from my local library) it is a "Queen Beer". Which I thought was pretty funny actually. Anyway, it has one spike that is quite long and has been staked upwards.

I should have also said that this spike is DIRECTLY under a leaf. So is there any way to sort of move it over and then up? So as not to disturb the leaf?

Thank you so much for your time and patience everyone! I truly appreciate it!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

When I was being trained, I was told to train the spike once it is about an inch or two long to an area where the leaves would not be in the way of the spike.

Preferably, you should train the spikes to grow away from the plant. The spikes will lean towards the light source. If your spike is starting to lean towards the plant, turn it around so that it leans away from the plant and towards the light.

It is also preferred to start training a spike once it's about 1" to 2" tall. Otherwise the flowers and the spike will twist in all different sorts of directions if it's done in bud.

When you train your spike properly, the arrangement of the flowers on your spike will have a neat and ordered appearance.

There are more complex growing techniques to grow show quality plants, but that's a different topic that's related to this one...

[KathyKayserKonig]

Thank you everyone for your kind replies!

I have noticed in the past three days or so that the spike is turning towards the sun and out from under the leaf so I will continue to let it do so.

I am not really up to the level of growing show quality plants (I'd be satisfied by NOT killing this one) but I also did not know there are things that one must do to make sure the flowers on a spike come out neatly arranged. Is there anything else I can / should be doing? Even though I am a novice I mean. Or if this information inappropriate for this thread, should I post another thread?

Thanks again so much for taking the time to help me out.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Well, just on the topic of not having the flowers twist on the spike, I was told by the nursery owner to not rotate the plants.

I didn't work for the nursery very long, and it's been a while since then, so I forgot a few details. But I'll do my best.

Here we go...

The leaves of a Phalaenopsis growing on a tree in nature droop downwards and forms an upside-down "V". This is so that when it rains the water goes away from the crown. A Phal's crown faces the sun and will lean towards it.

In pot culture this does not change. That's why people who've grown Phals in pot culture for a long time experience this "problem". It's actually not a problem for the plant. This is a problem for the person trying to grow an aesthetically beautiful potted Phalaenopsis, who may not know how they grow in nature.

Well...when you keep rotating a Phalaenopsis, you force the plant to alter it's physiology. That's why if you pay attention to a Phalaenopsis' foliage you can tell if they've been rotated often. It shows. The leaves will orient themselves in opposing directions. For example, one set of leaves will grow right, and the other set will grow left.

This is exactly what happened to a Cleisostoma suaveolens (Vanda Alliance) I just recently bought. They grew it in pot culture, and they grew it one direction, then they grew it another. So I have a plant that's "mixed up". When I mounted them, I placed the plant according to how the newest set of leaves were growing, (with the tips of the newest set of leaves pointing down forming an upside-down "V"). But the old set of leaves pointed up because the previous grower rotated it.

Well...

A similar thing happens to a Phals spike. It aligns itself with the setting sun. If you keep it in the same position (or as close to it as you can), for the life of the blooms, the spike and the blooms will all point in the same direction (facing the sun). Imagine, if you will, the flowers basking in the sunlight.

The moment when the Phal is in bud and is rotated from one position to another, the flowers on the spike will twist to face the sun. You'll see it particularly with the twisting of the ovaries just behind the sepals and the petals where the bud connects to the spike.

This is why you'll see certain Phals go for $5 and others go for $50 or $60. For someone who doesn't really care or don't know any better, they won't notice this.

You'll see what I mean. Just pay closer attention.

There's more to a show plant than this, but this is something you can control without micropropagation.

[Judi]

If it is a Queen Beer it definately has an upward growing spike. I have a Dtps. Queen Beer "Red Sky" 1216-MPO224 Magenta that I purchased around 3 years ago and it flowered several times with upward spikes. I am attaching a picture.