This sounds like a test of wills to me. The plant wants flowers and you
want leaves. (99% of the time, it's the other way around.)
I would probably let it bloom if the leaves are truly healthy. Be ready
to cut it early if the leaves look stressed. There's nothing wrong with
cutting this spike too, if that's what you want to do.
I would advise against using keiki paste. Years ago when I used it on
some Phals, it seemed to stress the plants whether a keiki was produced
or not. Others may have a completely different experience.

Steve


J Fortuna wrote:
What should I do? I have a Phal that has only two leaves, and has not grown
any new ones in a while. The two remaining leaves are healthy enough, and
it's root system seems to be good enough as far as I can tell, but still
it's not one of my thriving ones for sure. This is the third time in a row
that this Phal has put out a spike. I cut off the spike the last two times,
trying to get it to concentrate on leaf growth instead. But now it has put
out a spike for the third time, and I am beginning to question my own
judgement.

Since the orchid seems to 'insist' upon spiking, should I let it spike after
all?

Should I try the keiki-grow paste? I bought this paste to apply to another
plant but wound up not using it on that one, since the spike was very
spindly and I did not see how I could strip a node effectively, even if it
had had a node that did not have a bud growing out of it (which it did not).

What would you do if it were your Phal?

Thanks for advice!

Joanna