What to do with brown, tall stalk
 

I have a potted orchid from a king soopers that when the flowers died off, the stalk turned brown and dead(?) - the leaves on the bottom are doing great - do I cut this thing off and hope for another, or leave it in place? Anything I can do to encourage another shoot/stalk? Thanks so much in advance for any advice - I know nothing about this (clearly.)

since its brown, you can just cut it off. if it were green, there would be a chance for auxiliary spikes. if your interested in a link to an old article i wrote about phals, i can get it for you :D good luck and welcome to the forum

Bob- thanks for your responses. I would definitely be interested in link to your article...Parusing this site is making my head spin- a lot of info, especially for someone who's knowledge base is zero....

here is the link, good luck :)
A Quick guide to Phalaenopsis - Orchid Board

I agree with Bob about the spike. But I see your phal is in a decorative pot? Does this pot have a drainage hole? Is there another, plastic or clay pot that's inside this cache pot? You need to make sure the plant's roots don't sit in water. Also, I see the air roots are quite dry, which mean you might want to increase humidity by placing your phal on a humidity tray. Did you check the roots in the pot? Your leaves look beautiful and healthy, but if you want it to be the case for a long time, you need to take care of the roots first.

thanks for the reply, yes, there is a clay pot inside decorative, and I will behave better about caring for the roots. Thanks -D

To up the humidity you can just take the clay pot out of the current decorative one, and put it on a large saucer with pebbles and water. Don't let the water cover pebbles more than halfway, so it doesn't touch the pot.

well thank you! I am so appreciative...

Yep. Great advice. You mitt want to think about repotting, if you haven't repotted since you bought it.


You can call me Bob ;)