Posted on: 02 December, 2004
Author: Robert Roy
Pruning Your ... flowers have all died and when should you cut the stalk back and how ... an orchid stalk (spike) should cause no harm to the plant. However, some orchids will produce ne Pruning Your OrchidThe flowers have all died and when should you cut the stalk back and how far?Pruning an orchid stalk (spike) should cause no harm to the plant. However, some orchids will produce new bloom shoots from the nodes on the old blossom stalk, or some plants will produce small baby plants (pups) from these nodes. The new plantsmay be removed and potted after they develop roots. Of course, some orchids do neither of these things. In either case, it doesn't hurt the plant if you remove the old bloom stalk; you may just miss some new blossoms or a baby plant.Once the stalk turns yellow or brown, it is obvious that no blossomsor plants will be produced. You can then cut it to within an inch from where the blossom stalk originated on the plant. You can also cut it there when it is green if you don't mind losing potential blossoms. Another option is to just remove the end of the blossom stalk to shorten the stalk, but retain enough so that it may bloom again. If you do this, cut it back to about 1/4 inch above a node (indicated by a small leaf-like bract clasping the stalk). Article Tags: Blossom Stalk Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com