Today, I was repoting my Phal which had one stock with about 4 flowers on it
and I accidentally broke the flower spike. I was repotting because it came
in a 3" pot and there was more root outside the pot than in it. The roots
and leaves look healthy so I snipped off (shudder) the flower spike as it
was bent and broken and laying on the table. Will this orchid still grow
more spikes with flowers if I treat it with kid gloves? Is there anything I
should do special for it?

Thanks...Chuck.

Oh, the dreaded *snap* sound! How far down the spike did you cut it off? If
not too far, it may branch for you. If you cut it all the way down, well, it
just might send up another. No way to tell until it does its thing.

As long as it has healthy roots and leaves, all will be well. Next time,
don't be in such a hurry to repot a healthy plant, though, unless the medium
has broken down. If you have aerial roots (out of the pot and growing all
over the place) just be sure to water them thoroughly when you soak the
plant.

Diana

"Faz" wrote in message
news:gxKXj.146039$rd2.97064@pd7urf3no...
Today, I was repoting my Phal which had one stock with about 4 flowers on
it and I accidentally broke the flower spike. I was repotting because it
came in a 3" pot and there was more root outside the pot than in it. The
roots and leaves look healthy so I snipped off (shudder) the flower spike
as it was bent and broken and laying on the table. Will this orchid still
grow more spikes with flowers if I treat it with kid gloves? Is there
anything I should do special for it?

Thanks...Chuck.

On May 17, 5:14*pm, "Faz" wrote:
Today, I was repoting my Phal which had one stock with about 4 flowers on it
and I accidentally broke the flower spike. I was repotting because it came
in a 3" pot and there was more root outside the pot than in it.

Repotting stresses plants and stressed plants tend to drop their
flowers. So even if the spike had not broken, the flowers might not
have lasted too long on the plant. Since it did break, you did the
right thing by cutting off the spike and hopefully placing it in a
water vase for viewing.

Next time I'd recommend waiting until the plant is done flowering
before repotting. The only exception to this would be if the potting
material is breaking down and the roots are rotting, in which case
it's an emergency. I see that another person mentioned this too.

As a final note, don't worry about aerial roots. They're often some of
the healthiest roots of the plant. It does sound like this one was
ready for a bigger pot, but next time wait for the flowers to run
their course.

The roots
and leaves look healthy so I snipped off (shudder) the flower spike as it
was bent and broken and laying on the table. Will this orchid still grow
more spikes with flowers if I treat it with kid gloves? Is there anything I
should do special for it?

Most of today's phals are hybrids and bloom at least twice per year.
Provided it recovers from the repotting in short order, it may send up
another spike later. There is some anecdotal evidence that placing the
plant in the shade for one week will help the plant recover more
quickly from repotting.

Hope that helps. Happy orchid growing!

Munir