Broke a spike...comfort me!

[Raqsharqi]

I have an Oncidium Wildcat that I rescued from Lowe's, and I have not seen it bloom. It had developed a beautiful, think, TALL spike that I was so proud of, and I broke the tip of it off by accident today! I think the section is over an inch long. There is nothing to be done, of course, but I'm SO IRRITATED!
What do you folks do to keep that from happening? I think I reached across the plant to get to another one when it happened.

[wintergirl]

Sorry about your spike I have had a similar incident, it is very frustrating. I guess the only thing that we can do is place the plant in a safety zone where the chances of hitting the spike are reduced. It's hard to do, especially with a very long spike. Just know that you gave the plant such good care that you got a nice spike. You will get another one and it will bloom and be beautiful!

[bil]

Yeah, sod's law. Ah well, at least you didn't knock the plant over and break it.

[LizB88]

Sorry about your spike, I broke a spike of one of my oncidiums, and I just left it alone, next thing I new it just kept growing from were it was broken, I don't think it put out as many buds as it would have with the original, yet still put up a nice show. So if you leave it be you may still get to see some blooms.

Now yesterday I broke a growth of 3 of one of my encyclia orchids while watering. I was puzzle for a minute because I hear the "click" and I new I broke something, but I had not seen a spike from any of the plants that I had just brush by, and then I saw it, well you know the feeling

[Raqsharqi]

It's heartbreaking.

[DweamGoiL]

How long was the spike? If it was only a piece of the spike, if you leave it alone, it might still flower after a few months.

[Optimist]

I don't know if it will comfort you or make you laugh at my ineptitude, but I once accidentally left a huge specimen sized oncidium outside in November to freeze to death. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and I just KNEW I would remember to bring it in before it got dark. Nope. FOrgot all about it. I beat on my self for months because of that. Look on the bright side, oncidiums can have more than one spike.

[Raqsharqi]

I broke off more tha an inch and a half. It looked like an asparagus tip! l'll still get a bloom, but it won't be as tall as it might have been. It's really a thick spike, and since I have no idea what it will look like, I was really babying the plant.

[ThePinkCucumber]

Oh I am so sorry!
I had my heart broken a month ago - I took out our cattleya to sit in the winter sun for a bit, forgot about it that day and next morning found it murdered by our puppy. And by murdered I really mean murdered to shreds. I was so livid with myself Nothing we can do now I guess, it happens.

[No-Pro-mwa]

I'm sorry about your spike that is sad. I have yet to break on but I have dropped or knocked them off the shelf and broke the pots. One noID pahl I did that too more than a year ago didn't bloom this year it was so pissed off.

The only thing it would do is grow roots. Just last week I finally see it is starting to put out a new leaf, it was really one pissed off orchid. I told it I was sorry.