Thoughts on removing small branch on Phal spike

[climbtheplanet]

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

I agree with all who say DON'T CUT IT! No, cutting it isn't going to strengthen the main spike.

Thanks all for your input. I wanted to ask to make sure I was doing the best by the plant and also to see if there was differing schools of thought, but it does seem unanimous.

The above quote hits on the info I was looking for. If pruning will not positively affect the plant the branch is there to stay.

I will update this thread with pictures at least once it blooms so future readers can see how the branch turned out.

---------- Post added at 09:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:52 PM ----------

Originally Posted by estación seca

Would you refuse to kiss somebody because you already kissed them?

I assume you mean why would you turn down more blooms? And that was part of my question (which seems answered) of is there a reason to remove a branch to get better all around blooms (quality vs quantity). Again, with my knowledge coming from gardening, I can use strawberries as an example. Many people will nip every bud and runner on a first year strawberry plant, thus sacrificing all possible fruit and clones the first year in order to increase the heartiness of the plant which will demonstrably produce bigger and better fruit in year two. Some folks just want strawberries to eat and so they will let plants produce rounds of smaller berries and they take what they can get.

That's just one example where pruning makes total sense, but I couldn't find info specific to orchid branches so of course I wanted to confirm either way.