What is this long shoot?

[SimplyRobz]

Aloha! I have a phalaenopsis plant that is growing a very long shoot and at first I thought it was a flower spike but it's been almost 5 months and it just keeps getting longer. Can someone tell me what it is and should I let it keep growing or cut it off? I feel like it's using all the energy in the plant lol..Mahalo in advance for the assistance!

[estación seca]

It's a flower spike. I would leave it. It won't harm the plant at all.

[Roberta]

It is a flower spike. Isn't the point of growing orchids all about flowers? Why would one even think of cutting a devoping spike??? Orchids don't do anything fast. It can tease you for months developing the spike. You might consider gently staking it, when the flowers open they will be heavy. And don't change its orientation to the light, you want the spike to continue to develop straight.

[Mountaineer370]

Ditto to the above two posts. That is definitely a very long and winding inflorescence (flower spike), and in my experience, it's unusual for them to get that long before putting out buds and blooming, but the plant has its own reasons for doing that, and who are we to second-guess them? The plant itself looks healthy, so I would just sit back and let it do its thing.

[Dimples]

See this thread for my experience with a similar situation. I’ll update it soon.