Orchids are a beautiful plant that require pruning once the flowers fall off. To improve the overall health of your orchid, you can trim dead stems and roots, as well as remove spent flower spikes and diseased leaves. The process involves trimming spikes, removing dead or damaged leaves, and cutting unhealthy roots.
To prune an orchid, follow these steps: Trim spikes, remove dead or damaged leaves, and cut unhealthy roots. Use sterilized, sharp tools for clean cuts. Caring for orchids after pruning is crucial for maintaining their health and thriving for many years to come. Some orchid species may not need pruning, while others require specific maintenance to encourage reblooming.
Trimming unhealthy or dead structures on your orchid can help conserve energy and redirect growth into more aesthetically pleasing directions. It can also shift the plant from one stage of growth to another. To keep the plant healthy and thriving, follow this easy method for pruning orchids.
Mitigant pruning can be done while the orchid is still in bloom by cutting back any fading flowers to the main branch. Cut off dead roots, dead leaves, bulbs, and canes, wait for all blooms to fall off the plant, and trim brown or yellowed stems down to the level of the soil. Look for roots that are no longer turgid and appear brown or pale and mushy, then trim them back to the plump, healthy, silvery green portion.
Carefully cut off the orchid stem a half inch to an inch above the second bract above the orchid’s base and place the plant near a north or east-facing node. For unhealthy, brown spikes, cut all the way back to the base of the plant.
📹 Orchid Care for Beginners – What to do after Phalaenopsis blooms fall? Cutting spike & aftercare
Today we continue our Orchid Care for beginners series with an important episode, which will address what you should do after …
📹 Where To Cut Orchid Stem After Flowers Fall Off!
For a concise guide to growing moth orchids, check out the link to my orchid eBook, Moth Orchid Mastery, available right on my …
Excellent advice! I searched for orchid care on YouTube (I was gifted one and don’t remember much about caring for them), ended up on your article, watched the whole thing while taking mental notes, and then thought the title of your book sounded familiar. Years ago I was a finalist in your book cover design contest! It’s such a small world!
Nice. You can try to propagate new orchid plants (or Keikis ) from the spike you just cut off by wrapping the spike in spaghnum moss and putting it in a tall plastic or glass vase, with just the bottom end of the spike touching the bottom. Add a few ounces of distilled water, put fenestrated plastic plant wrap over the top of the vase and secure with tape or a rubber band. Put in a sunny window and the greenhouse terrarium often will grow a new plant off one of the dormant buds in a few months. Once the new roots get a few inches long, cut the new plant from the old spike and repot. Try this each time your orchid is done flowering to try to make more plants from the cut flower spike.
Newbie too my son and his wife got me one after I fell Feb 24 and broke my shoulder just like the one you have flowering .it lost all the flowers on 1 stem last week..thank you for this easy to understand vid…its been sending out a new central leaf since the flowers wilted and the other stem is still flowering. My son is coming tomorrow and I wanted to show him i was able to learn how to care for this beautiful living being 4 months tomorrow that its been blooming…always been to afraid to buy one that I’d kill it…now I’m excited to have another passion….thank you so much Joanie
Thank you! I knew NOTHING about orchids when I almost threw one out after it bloomed, a friend said cut it down and now I got one to bloom again twice. Another once. Just one of my orchids ain’t doing a thing. Maybe cut it all the way down? There are other pale green-gray strands and I’m not sure what they are, just kinda hanging around and growing well, but no blooming. Should these be cut too, as I’m just leaving those be. They’re kinda succulent and fleshy and might hold moisture for the plant. Who knows. Thank you for the great article. Greatly appreciated.
Hi Being new to Orchids and keeping it alive ( actually its the wifes she had one bought her for Mothers day) its a phalaenopsis white and it has given me about 12 gorgeous blooms of flowers but now I only have two and the stems are extremely long. I’m just discovered you think your articles are really really informative. So as soon as the last two flowers drop I’m gonna cut the stems right back and I think I’m gonna report it because the root system underneath doesn’t look brilliant although it is thriving leaves are in really good condition not drooping not yellow and bright green in colour .!
Hi there, I’m now perusal your article. I had 2 before and I killed them trying to trim. I seriously have no idea. I kept them in a room with no direct sun and bit of water every few weeks. I now have another, nothing fancy just a basic $ 30 pink and that’s the limit of my knowledge. And it needs a trim, about 2 feet tall with 3 flowers that look like on the way out. The wife getting fed up in case I make my failure hit $90.
I’m a first time orchid mom and I’m so afraid to damage it! I have two questions! In the example where you cut the stem at the base, once the plant has rested, and grown some new leaves… 1)how long will it be before the stem grows back and tries to flower again and 2) where will the new stem grow from? The same relative spot where the original stem was?
My orchid bloomed and then the flowers fell off, after that the stem started to dry out and go a yellowish colour, I then cut it off at the neared node and since then the rest of the stem has turned the same. It’s grew two healthy dark green leaves and a new one is starting to grow. What do I do with the dead stem? And will my orchid re bloom? And if it does when? Thanks
Hello, I’m new to your website. I just subscribed and ordered your moth Orchard mysteries e book. I just had a question. I would like to ask you how does a orchid grow under a growing light? I don’t know what kind of orchid it is. I’m new to the orchids. I’ve had mine for year. I got it for last Mother’s Day it’s doing very very well growing. I just repotted it, I was amazed at the roots. I had to cut a couple off, but it had all kinds of green growth. Very strong Roots when I took the plant out of its pot to put it in a bigger pot. There were a lot of white roots new roots that had put on. I’ve had this under a grow light for maybe a little over a month. I don’t know much about the orchid. It’s beautiful. It was bloomed for probably three months as well. tips on this orchid would be welcomed just learning as I go. I set it in water full for four hours once a week and it has grown immensely. There was no rotted roots when I reported it. A couple was it and they weren’t rotted. They just was old. my orchid looks very happy but I do want it to bloom by winter again that would be wonderful. I’m assuming I will have to take the light off of it for that to happen. I enjoy your website. I’m going to enjoy perusal more articles thank you so much. Have a blessed day.
Exactly article that I needed! Thanks for sharing. It’s now middle of May, the flowers finally dropped off my phalaenopsis. I cut the stem back and there is a node that’s wanting to grow. I’m debating if I should just cut it all the way down to the base or leave it to maybe produce more flowers. My question is, is it too late in the season for it to waste energy producing more flowers? And if I cut it down to the base, do I feed orchid fertilizer still?
This was a helpful article. Just tried your method so I’ll see if anything blooms towards the fall/autumn. I got mine as a gift so I’m hoping it blooms again. Just waiting for the last four blooms to fall off and wait alittle before trimming the stem. I’ve never owned a plant so I’m hoping it survives. Haha.
My husband gave me an orchid about a year ago. Within a couple of months, it died. I told him that for me, they are hard to keep alive. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, he came home with another orchid plant! I’m determined not to let this one die. Some of the flowers are falling already but it does have a couple of buds that are ready to bloom. Can you please help me, I don’t want this plant to die too. I water the plant once a week. And it’s sitting now I front of my living room window. We don’t get direct sun light in our house since we have sun screens in every window of the house. Should I leave it there or move it somewhere else? Thank you!
I repotted my orchid a year ago in potting soil 😬 I see alot of people use bark/moss etc. It has bloomed a couple time since then. Should I repot into a different substance? For having not been the best plant owner I would say it’s doing pretty well. Has alot of big leaves at the base and they’re dark green. Over all it looks healthy but I feel like I’m the only one using potting soil, in a Clay pot….. any advice?
Usually these last me a few months before the leaves fall off then I put them outside because my apartment is so small then forget about them .. I’m bad. But The leaves started falling off of a new one that I just got only a about 2 weeks ago and I’m so sad. But I will try this and be nicer to it. It did have another tiny group of leaves growing in the same pot, I separated it hoping it will grow a branch ? Not sure how that works. But I put it in a clear glass bowl by the window
I have a beauty that I trimmed back to center of the plant when the blossoms dropped off…. in just a few months, low and behold, I discovered a new stem forming…. I water usually by misting the bark until it feels heavy enough and had read that you don’t feed a flowered orchid… it’s in a room with very bright light but not in direct sun really fun to see what happens! consider it a gift when one of them re-blooms (maybe they like my choice of Netflix viewing…)
I cut much lower than the node below the flower. They were stressed store-bought orchids and I have actually just repotted them because their medium was in such bad shape. My friend, who is a florist, recommended I cut low and continue using flowering feed instead of growing feed to promote new flowering growth. Have I done anything wrong? I am really worried because I love these plants.
My large orchid has about 5 bulbs at the base, 2 have stems with flowers which I will be cutting back soon (we are in New Zealand so reversed seasons of course). Will each “bub area” at the base potentially grow a stem that has flowers on it or do they often only have one or 2 that grow? Good vid mate, thanks
Hi there. I usually cut all the stems off after blooming. But now I have a phalaenopsis orchid that has pushed a stem right out of the top leaf, and so I’m not sure if I can cut that stem off at the base, because I’m worried that there might not grow new leafs at that spot. Have you ever had such a case, and how would you go about it?
I’ve been given a total of 4 orchids now, over a period of time, and they all appear to be doing well. The problem is that in addition to flowering well, they are adding new leaves and one or two of them are now so heavy, because of the weight of the leaves, that I can barely lift them. One has 19 leaves! They appear to be forming new leaves both from the top and the bottom. Is it OK to cut off any of the older leaves? Otherwise, I’ll have to repot and find some huge pots for them! They’re a bit unmanageable.
2 questions: 1. One of the leaves on my beautiful blooming orchid is turning soft and yellow, why is this? 2. My other orchid hasn’t bloomed for years and I treat it exactly the same as my “bloomer” there is no stem as I cut it off years ago and it’s never grown back. Why is this? It is otherwise a very healthy plant