When to cut dead bloom spikes (pics included)

[rehric00]

Okay, I have 2 phals that I repoted bc the roots looked bad. All the flowers fell off and the spikes are dead/dying. I need help deciding what to do on each plant.

This is one of the phals. The roots in this one looked 100x better than the next phal I am going to post pic of. As you can see, there are still 2 green spikes that look healthy. The other started turning yellow a few days ago. Should I cut this one off near the base of the plant?



Next.. Here is an overview shot of my second phal. The spikes were already brown when I bought the plant and it was in bloom as well. The repoting of this one did not kill the flowers as quickly as the one above. However, the roots on this one did not look good at all and I will be surprised if this one survives. Should I cut the spikes off since they are both brown? And note the yellow leaf... It is way more yellow in real life, should I cut that off? Or let it finish dying on its own?



Here is just a close up of the yellow leaf...



Thanks for all your input!

[trdyl]

I only cut off the brown portion unless they do not have many good roots. If they do not have a good supply of living roots the spike get cut off green or not.

[Lana]

I agree, if the first phal has several good roots, I'd leave the green spikes. If not, I'd cut all of them. The brown spikes can be cut off. I wouldn't worry about the yellow leaf. It looks like it's the bottom leaf and the yellowing might be just a part of its natural life cycle. If it's really yellow, it'll probably fall off on its own in a day or two.

[Lana]

Also, what helped me with getting new roots on several orchids, is making a very thin layer of slightly damp sphagnum moss on top of bark. I noticed that once I do that, and spray that layer daily, so it doesn't fully dry out, the new roots start to emerge from right above that layer in a couple of weeks.

[camille1585]

I agree with all the above, that basically what I was going to say.
Another comment about the yellow leaf, I also think it's normal leaf drop. A lot of phals will lose a lower leaf at the same time or not long before growing a new leaf. And yours has a new leaf.

[rehric00]

Thanks everyone! I liked the tip on the moss.. that makes sense.. and yes the bark does dry out very quickly.

[RosieC]

I'm late to this and I agree with everything above.

The only comment I want to add is that in the last picture there appears to be bark in the crown of the plant (inside the small new leaf) I would remove that as if it's damp it could cause rot in the crown, also be careful not to get water in the crown and try and dry it out if you do.