Cutting Off Phal flowers by June 1st?

[khill]

I went on an orchid tour today at a greenhouse at one of our local hotels. The horticulturist said to cut the flowers off of your phals by June 1st. The statement was made beause this way they will grow new leaves during the summer and be ready for blooming next season.

I live in SW Florida, and was wondering if any other Floridians have heard of this or follow this regimen? My phals are blooming and have been for a few months now. I purchased them in bloom, so I didn't know what I should do.

Any comments or suggestions?

[Tindomul]

I've never heard of this before, but I would ask, what about folks that grow indoors, or under artificial lighting? One of my Phals has been exposed to lots of light for months and has not grown any new leaves, only roots. Bottom line, my first instinct is that it doesn't work as nicely as it should.

[justatypn]

I have about 18 or so Phal's and have never heard of this. I have 11 in bloom some of them are dropping their blooms and some will still be in bloom around June. I would love to see if this theory works. A few of my phals didn't bloom this year and could not figure out why : might have to give this one a go ahead.

[Lagoon]

I can only guess this person is talking about hybirds and not specie grouping.
I do cut mine off late may, this gives them more energy to grow more leaves and I get another blooming period late oct - nov. These blooms are just as beautiful and the spring blooms.
In my experience they can and do bloom twice a year

[justatypn]

Gloria, with your experience it does work... Can you explain the steps???

You say they can bloom twice a year, what months do you cut them back????

[khill]

Thanks for your replies.

I have one phal that is getting two more spikes, so I'm not going to cut that one. Maybe I'll try it with some of my others to see what happens.

She was specific and said June 1st. That's when she cuts all hers off.

[adriponic]

Hi

For sure cutting phal spikes when all except one or two
flowers are fully opened ends up in more spikes to come.

My stats show that on an annual basis 150 phal plant I
use exclusively for cut flower business yield 40% more
spikes than 288 phal plants used as parent plants.

JP

[cb977]

Originally Posted by adriponic

Hi

For sure cutting phal spikes when all except one or two
flowers are fully opened ends up in more spikes to come.

My stats show that on an annual basis 150 phal plant I
use exclusively for cut flower business yield 40% more
spikes than 288 phal plants used as parent plants.

JP

That is SO interesting!

I recently cut back the spikes on a few of my phals. They only produced one or two blooms compared to what they did last year...there were a few buds that started blasting so I decided to cut it all back and let the plant recoup for the next go-round

[Tindomul]

I wont try this as I have lots of Phals not is bloom right now, and only one in bloom. What about phals that Have spikes, but no buds?

[Ray]

I view that statement as a generalization based on limited observation, but being too broadly spread.

If you let a weak plant bloom its head off, it might not build up enough energy stores to do a decent blooming job "next season".

IF, on the other hand, your cultural conditions are good, the plant might be just fine, so you can leave it alone.

I would speculate the the giver of that advice - assuming it was original and not just the spreading of lore - just didn't provide the ideal conditions, so has found that he needs to curtail blooming to compensate.