Yellow Stem on Phal

[angelinek]

Hi Everyone!

I need some help. I've been doing some fairly extensive research on the net to figure out what's going on with my phal. I got one about two months ago from a relative, and within a couple of weeks, all the blooms and buds had fallen off! But it didn't die. It had two main flowering stems, one of which had an extra fork (total of 3 flower spikes).

Anyway, I moved it and started giving it about an ounce of water every week. then miraculously about 3 weeks ago, one of the stems started pushing out new buds, and now it's flowering beautifully.

Unfortunately, the other stem which has the forked flower spike, started to yellow and die starting from the tip (which I've now found out is completely normal for a phal). Not know any better, I cut it off and it seemed to do fine for a while. Then it started yellowing again about a week ago (still normal, right?) So I cut it. Again. But whereas last time it took about a week and a half for the stem to start whithering again, this time it's only taken two days for it to whither almost to the base!

In addition to that, there was a node that was just barely beginning to spike right beneath the initial fork. Now it's yellow too, and I don't know what's wrong. Should I just cut off the entire stem at the base? I've tried cutting off a little more and dabbing some cinnamon on the cut as an anti-fungal as sometime suggested in another thread. Am I just harming my orchid more? What should I do? And as I said, the other stem with the flowering orchids is completely healthy. No sign of yellowing anywhere.

[Paul Mc]

If you have pictures of what's happening, it might help the orchid pros here beter determine what's going on.

[tucker85]

It sounds completely normal to me. Once flowering is complete the stems will wither away and eventually become dry brown twigs. Occasionally an orchid will send up a new spike branching off of the old one and flower again. We all just feel very lucky when that happens. You can leave the spike alone and it will eventually just dry up like it does in nature or you can cut it off an inch or two from the base just for appearances. You don't need to put anything on the cut. The plant will grow new flower spikes next year. You may want to think about your watering technique. It's best to put the plant in a sink and water the medium thouroughly so it's completely wet and then not water again until it's almost dry. The pot should feel lighter and the surface of the medium should be dry before watering again.