New spike turned brown, roots out of control!
 

Hi all, I bought my first phalaenopsis orchid in November 2015 in Sydney, NSW, Australia. At the time, it was in full bloom, but all of the petals fell off about 3 months later at the beginning of February. I've been watering it about once a week, and fertilising it every 2 weeks with Peter's Excel Orchid Fertiliser CalMag Finisher Organic-S 12-6-20+6.5CaO+2MgO+TE.

I was happy when I noticed another spike that was starting to grow from underneath one of the leaves in the beginning of February, but this spike has now turned brown, and looks like it's dying (you can see this in the pictures with the red circle). The roots have also now gotten out of control, and are growing quite wild.

So I have a few questions. Since the roots are growing out of control, and the orchid has lost it's bloom, does that mean I should repot it now?

Also, where should I cut the old spike? Should I cut it just under where it's turned brown, or should I cut it much further down the base? Why did the new spike turn brown and die, is it because the plant didn't have enough energy to keep it growing because the old spike was still left intact, which was taking energy away which the plant needed to grown the new spike?

I was pretty happy with the progress, until I noticed that the new spike was dying. I thought it was going to grow and eventually bloom, but it never quite made it more than a few centimetres before turning brown.

If anyone can give me some advice, I'd be very appreciative, since I'd love to see this plant bloom once again!

Your orchid looks healthy :)

Regarding roots/repotting. Roots looks healthy, but I would repot. From the picture it looks like there are old roots, (dried up on the top, so no harm in those) but there might be roots in the middle that you can remove. And I would atleast consider it a sign that its been in the pot for a while. So I would repot.

Regarding the spike- the one you circled, it seem to be a bit odd from the start, did you see this emerge, or can it be an old that never became anything? My plants usually makes new spikes higher up, but have seen some making new further down.
It might be from moving, I wouldnt be very concerned.

I would repot, and I cut the spikes almost all the way down, and put cinnamon on the cut. Or I let it die naturally.
You can cut it higher up, hoping for a new branch from one of the nodes.


Looks good though :)

I don't expect to see spikes starting on mine until the cooler weather probably around July where I live. Some of my flowers will last until christmas but not all, so three months bloom is fairly normal.

I have had a spike begin to reshoot but because the weather gets hot so quickly it just dies. As for the dying spike I let mine die off before cutting it near the bottom in case they do something interesting (I currently have a keiki on one of mine).

And the roots, I learnt from here that if you have lots of humidity the plant will grow aerial roots, nothing wrong with that it just makes it a little difficult to water. So repot if you like but your roots look normal to me.

The part circled is a root and not a spike. Sometimes, if too dry or they experience mechanical damage, they just dry up like that.

You can safely repot. I would soak the plant in luke warm water for a time to help make the roots more pliable and then you can try to tuck them down into the new pot. Be very gentle and if some don't want to go down then wait until they are a bit longer and you can likely direct them back into the pot. Or, just leave them growing up...I have some that grow roots down into the pot and up in the air.

I usually try to cut the spike as close to the plant as possible...w/out damaging the plant itself, of course. Or, sometimes, if the plants needs to some extra stability in the new pot or I'm trying to straighten it up in the pot, I'll leave a bit of a stump of the old spike and use that to secure it to a stake.

Hey guys, thanks for the help, I'm happy to announce that after waiting a year and 3 months, my orchid has finally started spiking!!

I did buy a new pot a while back, but never got around to repotting it. Perhaps I'll do it after this spike finishes blooming.

As you can see, the roots are still out of control, and the leaves are a much deeper shade of green with a waxier appearance than my old pictures. I remember reading somewhere that the leaves should be a deep green, so maybe I'm doing something right!

I'll post another update when it starts flowering!!

Your phal is a happy camper! And yes, that little nub you thought was a spike was defiantly a root. Spikes have a different shaped tip from the get go, and are never 2 toned, but I bet you know this now 😊 I never worry about the air roots on my phals. I let them do as they please. Anyway, good job, and congrats on your upcoming blooms!
Oops. Didn't realize I was responding to a 6 month old thread 🙄

Good job!

Adamc any pics of the flowers??