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.

[SimplyRobz]

Thank you so much for all the affirmations! I have never seen a 3 and half foot flower spike on a phalaenopsis so it's a relief to know that what it is. I don't really have a stick that long to prop it up so I'll need to find one.

Some background on this specific plant: It was one of my late mother's orchids that was neglected for over two years before I repotted it about two years ago. It was in pretty bad shape and I didn't think it was going to survive. But within 6 months it shot out 4 keiki that I've potted next to her (see pic - they're towards the bottom of the pic).

I really appreciate everyone's replies. I love this Orchid Board!

[Roberta]

You don't want to prop it up straight, I see you already have a stake in there. (Initiallly I didn't see how long it already was) It's going to ramble... let it do what it is doing, you will just want to support it as it grows.

Good save! My condolences.