Brown, dying stem. Rest of plant seems fine?

[jderrick]

Hello -- new to the forum and hope I don't have too newbie of a question. I've had the orchid for a few years, it's been doing fine, it just put out a couple beautiful blooms, and now the stem is dead/dying. There's recent/new leaf growth and the plant's in the same environment its been in for a year (not dry but "sipping" water, diffused light from window it's beside). Any thoughts?

Thanks,
John

[Call_Me_Bob]

the blooms are probably done. how long were the blooms there?

[jderrick]

Hello! The blooms had been there a few weeks/maybe a month (not precisely sure). Before when blooms had dropped off the stem had remained, so I was just curious/concerned that this time was different.... Thanks!

[Call_Me_Bob]

sometimes the spike will saty green, and sometimes it will turn brown. but i think the flowers should have lasted longer than a month

[RosieC]

It's nothing to worry about. The flower stem will often die back, as help has said the sometimes rebloom but not always.

Now it's died back just cut it off close to where it joins the plant (as close as you can without damaging the plant). I actually cut most of mine back even before the stem dies.

Carry on caring for the plant and eventually a new flower stem will grow. Many phals will produce a new spike in the fall after a drop in temperatures, mine have produced them this spring because the temp drop was too much as they went dormant over the winter. Other phals respond to light levels, in the summer and start spiking then. It's difficult to tell which a particlar plant will respond to, but the majority of hybrids from a supermarket will be temperature dependent.