stagger flowering by cutting flower spikes

how do you cut the flower spikes to stagger the flowering. i am not sure what flower spikes are. can someone enlighten me? thanks in advance

[mayres]

That is not going to work too well with orchids as they usually only send out a limited number of spikes. Most people are so happy to see them at any time that they wouldn't dream of cutting one on purpose. We sometimes accidently break the tip off one during normal care and weep - often because this is the only opportunity to have flowers on a particular plant for an entire year and we've just blown it. Different types of orchids are different in when the spikes come and what part of the plant they come from. Spikes are the stem of eventual buds and flowers that arise in most instances from near the base of a plant. As a few examples, for phals this occurs near the base of the plant, in the case of oncidiums from one or two sides of the newest pseudobulbs, for a paph from the center of the growth(s) that just started about the time last years growth was blooming. Some plants will send out another spike if you cut the first one - I have seen phals do this. Oncidiums may send out another spike right away on the opposite side of the pseudobulb. But you never know and again you might loose your only opportunity. If you truly want to stagger the flowering of a group of similar plants you might try encouraging them to spike at different times by changing the conditions of the plants you are trying to stall a bit by varying light, temperature, fertilizer, etc. for a short while, and then put them back in ideal situations to see if you can get them to come later. I believe large commercial growers do this - by varying their greenhouse conditions they can trick the plants into thinking they are in a different season so to speak. In a way this is kind of like forcing tulip or amarylis bulbs - they think they have already gone through winter buy instead they were just in refrigeration. :-) Hope this helps. mike

Originally Posted by mayres

That is not going to work too well with orchids as they usually only send out a limited number of spikes. Most people are so happy to see them at any time that they wouldn't dream of cutting one on purpose. We sometimes accidently break the tip off one during normal care and weep - often because this is the only opportunity to have flowers on a particular plant for an entire year and we've just blown it. Different types of orchids are different in when the spikes come and what part of the plant they come from. Spikes are the stem of eventual buds and flowers that arise in most instances from near the base of a plant. As a few examples, for phals this occurs near the base of the plant, in the case of oncidiums from one or two sides of the newest pseudobulbs, for a paph from the center of the growth(s) that just started about the time last years growth was blooming. Some plants will send out another spike if you cut the first one - I have seen phals do this. Oncidiums may send out another spike right away on the opposite side of the pseudobulb. But you never know and again you might loose your only opportunity. If you truly want to stagger the flowering of a group of similar plants you might try encouraging them to spike at different times by changing the conditions of the plants you are trying to stall a bit by varying light, temperature, fertilizer, etc. for a short while, and then put them back in ideal situations to see if you can get them to come later. I believe large commercial growers do this - by varying their greenhouse conditions they can trick the plants into thinking they are in a different season so to speak. In a way this is kind of like forcing tulip or amarylis bulbs - they think they have already gone through winter buy instead they were just in refrigeration. :-) Hope this helps. mike

thank you mike. however i do have documentation from a local author. i will post here soon. I am living in tropical area near equatorial

[mayres]

Possibly your conditions and types of orchids are unique - but my comments are for the majority of hobby growers in temperature climates. I'll be interested to hear area grown and types of plants.