Cutting Off Phal flowers by June 1st?

[justatypn]

A lot to think about . Some phals appear to be tired others appear to be busting with energy and like ourselves we give more when we are energized and fade into the lazy's when we are tired...so with that...will allow nature to run it's course.

[ScottMcC]

don't forget that the majority of phals have been raised so that they are forced into blooming on the grower's schedule, not the plant's. after all, nobody's going to buy a phal that's not in bloom, so the grower needs to have a steady supply of them year round.

so based on this, applying an arbitrary date to cut spikes is silly. you should cut it based on the life cycle of the blooms.

[littlefrog]

I'm a pretty firm believer in cutting off most of my phal flower spikes in around this time of year. I do it for several reasons. 1) The flowers are usually starting to get a little ratty looking by now, 2) While they will certainly rebloom on a spike, I find the elegance of a primary spike far more appealing, 3) gives me room to work on the plants without fear of knocking things over, and 4) I'm sure that plants that aren't devoting energy to flowering will be able to spend more on growth.

Like Ray said, there is some overgeneralization to the idea that all phals should be cut at any one time of the year. A well grown, healthy hybrid phalaenopsis shouldn't be seriously set back by staying in bloom year round. I don't think it will bloom to 100% potential, but 90% is usually more than good enough. For a person with only a few plants, it is probably better to have something in bloom all the time.

Since I have many many phals, it doesn't give me a lot of pain to cut the spikes on all but a few of them. If I had fewer plants I'd be a little more liberal in leaving older spikes on. Some phals are sending up their first spikes now, or are just starting to open. I'm not cutting those! I'm just cutting the ones that have finished their primary blooming, which still leaves me several that I can enjoy during the summer and fall.

[markr]

Originally Posted by littlefrog

Some phals are sending up their first spikes now, or are just starting to open. I'm not cutting those!

Heh, I was about to say the same thing - if I cut all of my spikes by June 1, I'd never see some of my Phals bloom.

I basically do the same as littlefrog - I cut primary spikes shortly after blooming looks finished on them and the flowers have faded and let the plant get on with growing, regardless of what month that is. However, I only grow indoors in terrariums under artificial light, so the cycles my plants go through don't really correspond to natural months. The June deadline might make sense for greenhouse/natural light growers but not really for me.

I don't usually try to rebloom spikes.

[Lagoon]

If I had summer time bloomers I wouldn't cut them off either, that would be kinda silly you have to go with they're growth habits.

They're seems to be enough time between spring and later fall months to get 'some' of the phals to rebloom.
I found this out after my DH brought home a couple of sick and twisted phals - within a couple of days, I had to cut off the flowers, they we're so weak and thought they would die.
Since I do have some faith I thought I would just keep the 1st and last number higher for growth and keep the middle number of the fertilizer as lower as possible - Of course these new plants were repotted in fresh media first.


I continued to feed them thru out the warm summer months, also adding some seaweed feedings. They grew and grew - Looked very healthy!

As Sept approched I cut back on the fertilizers and flushed for weeks. In late sept On 1 or 2 phals I noticed some spikes that sat there for a few more weeks until they started to grow in Oct - some others in late nov. All of these phals did already bloom that spring. The more phals I collected the more habit it became to see them rebloom. It wasn't just a fluke as I had thought. 1 Thing I did notice about these phals were, they're spikes were not as tall but the number of flowers did not lack, they would just branch out from the smaller spikes

Generally I let the flowers go for about 2 months, I get abit tired of them after that. I think if I didn't have all the other orchids i do have .. I would probably allow them to flower longer.

Curious - Do you feed while phals are in bloom?

[Ross]

I have one Phal that will spike immediately after I cut off the old one. I have even cut emerging spikes just to have it try to send up another. All the while it is growing leaves.

[quiltergal]

After reading this thread I thought I would experiment with one of my phals. My Malibu Merlot has been blooming pretty constantly for about a year now. The flowers were getting progressively tatty looking, and the plant hadn't put out any new growth in quite a long time. I decided this would be the best one to try cutting off a blooming spike. I wacked it off about a week ago and yesterday I noticed it was sending out a new root. It will be really interesting this winter to see if it sends up a bigger better spike.