Help with my phalaenopsis
 

I received this phalaenopsis as a present and has had several months of blooming. Slowly the blossoms are starting to drop off and I'm faced with the question of where to cut off the spike once all the flowers are gone. As you can see by the photo there is one main spike but it branches out 3 times. If I were to cut above one of the branches would it branch out again?
Thanks for any suggestions.

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There are a few different ways to go about that. I personally don't cut them back right away. Once the blooms fall from a new phal I immediately repot to get rid of all the hard packed sphag they usually come in. After that I just watch the plant to see what it does. If the roots were mostly rotten and I have to cut allot off then I'll cut the spike back. I cut it right down close to the base without hitting any leaves so that way it can focus its energy on growing new roots instead of maintaining the spike.

If the roots are ok, then I tend to leave the spike on, sometimes I'll cut back to 1" above the top nodule if it is a little haywire. Sometimes an orchid will throw out a secondary spike off the main spike through one of the nodules (which is what it's done on the lower branch you see). Sometimes it won't. I let the plant tell me what it wants to do. If it starts to die back and a few months have passed I'll cut it back, I really just go with the plant. They all grow differently.


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I totally agree with ajeatoo. If this is your first orchid, please do some research (this forum is a great place!) and repot it soon after the blooms fall. The best indicator of the health of the plant is its roots, so if you find that it has a large healthy root mass, it can probably support a re-blooming. Otherwise, I wouldn't push it. As was suggested, you should cut off the spike and develop your care skills over the next few months. Often, a plant will wither its own spikes if it's stressed or doesn't think it can support more flowers soon.


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And it's a beautiful plant! I can't see any of the leaves or roots, but might be able to make more specific care suggestions if I saw a picture.


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