when to trim/cutback or re-stake my phal orchid
 

:hello First off please forgive my ignorance about orchids. I love orchids and received on for mother's day. I believe it is a phal. I keep it in my bathroom and it seems to love it there because its growing and blooming like crazy! My only concern is with the speed it is growing I fear I will need to do something soon about it. I'm not sure if I need to get larger stakes or trim the vine once the blooms are done. It doesn't show signs of slowing down any time soon as you can see from the pictures I have a new vine growing off an existing vine and lots of tiny blooms! Any advice or help would be amazing! i water it once per week and I fertilize once per month.

when to trim/cutback or re-stake my phal orchid
 

Hi, Your phal will probably bloom for quite some time, mostly likely a few months. Can you see the roots as all? Is it in a clear pot? Depending on the pot, if it is one of those clear soft pots that is tightly packed I would take a blade or knife and carefully make slices down the sides of the pot about every 1 1/2" around the pot to allow more air ventilation to the roots. If they look nice and green that is. Make sure you allow the medium to almost completely dry out between waterings. If it is in your bathroom it may be fairly humid so may very well take longer than a week to dry out. Also if it is tightly packed with moss.

I like to repot Once it's finished blooming but I have also done it while it is in bloom though you may loose some flowers and buds if you do, the medium is personal preference. But usually either a bark mix or sphagnum moss bark mix. Repot into a container the roots fit nicely without allot of room but not too tight as you will want to give it some room to breath and grow.

As for the spikes, you can choose to cut them back to within 1" of the plant, or cut them back to the first node behind where the flowers started. It's up to you and personal preference and greatly depends on the condition of the plant.

Take a read through the sticky above on Phals abuse. It will give you lots of info with pics as well. I'm sure lots of other people will chime in too, there's lots more to it, I just thought I'd get things going. ;)


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roots/pot
 

This is what I am seeing as far as roots and pot :)

I usually repot my orchids as soon as I get them to.make sure theres not root rot. Def. Look at the phal sticky and WELCOME WELCOME to the OB!!

From what I can see of the roots they look petty good. Just make sure you really let it dry out before you water again otherwise you will be in for root rot since it is tightly packed in moss and there doesn't look to be much ventilation.


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You def. Have fat happy roots in there.

This looks like a bark mix that has started to break down into very fine pieces. Is it? How fine is the media in the pot? I don't see any side slits or holes so I assume the hole in the pot for aeration is in the bottom. If that is the case you need to put something under the clear plastic pot so it is above the bottom the decorative pot in which it resides. If left flat on the bottom of the decorative pot, it covers the breathing hole and the plant will get root rot in a hurry. Just put some buttons or small gravel in the bottom of the decorative pot and then put the clear pot in that. Also don't water this until the media is dry. When it is dry (although it won't really be dry, but still damp in the middle where the root rot starts) then water it.