Xi Wang wrote in message ...
Besides, if you leave the spike, you might just get some keikis. Never
know.

I know the advice to cut off spent spikes to 'conserve the strength' of
a plant represents the wisdom of generations, but it doesn't correspond
very well to my recent experience with phals or to my own humble opinion
of biology.

A previous poster urged us to think of what happens in nature but my
conclusions are somewhat different: the flowers are long lived and
wilt as soon as pollinated so the strategy must be to persist until
a (possibly infrequent) pollination event occurs. If weather, passing
wildlife or other hazards of life in the wild damage the flowers, it
may make sense for the plant to sprout another branch off what's
left of the spike. Presumably there's some regulatory mechanism
that only allows this if the plant can afford it (admittedly this
may be partly bred out in domesticated varieties).

What is the metabolic cost of a flower spike? Well obviously it is a
bunch of growth that doesn't photosynthesise much, but it doesn't
weigh more than a big bunch of aerial roots such as phals often have
and no one worries about those sapping the life of the plant.

On my office windowsill for example I have an unidentified white phal
in a 5 inch pot, originally bought in bloom but spent from a florist
for 50 pence. It has been in bloom most of the time since. Currently
it has 8 open flowers and couple buds coming on branch from a spike that
first came up in october and had 10 flowers. Since that time there has
also grown a new leaf bigger than the previous ones and a new, thicker
flower spike that's shooting up a quarter inch a day. Will I chop off
any presentable flowers or even any nodes that might sprout more?

Phals are pretty vigorous growers and normally what you want is maximum
flower enjoyment. If you're grooming the plant for exhibition or
something your mileage may be different, but I'm a convert to
squeezing out the maximum flowers.

Leo