Your orchid arrived with vibrant blooms that amazed you and your guests. Sadly, after some time, those gorgeous blooms began to drop, leaving leaves and stems. You know from reading our blog that it has probably entered its vegetative stage.
Your orchid is not dead, so please don’t throw it away!
If you’re wondering how to prune your orchid’s flowering stems without killing it, or even why you should prune it at all, this post is going to help you.
Just in case you don’t already know, if you’ve kept your orchid moist and cool while exposing it to bright, diffused light, Phalaenopsis orchids can maintain their beautiful bloom display for up to twelve weeks!
While your orchid is in bloom, never trim or prune it. That will cause unneeded stress to your plant and speed up falling blooms. Let your orchid drop its blooms on its own time. After every single one has fallen on its own timeline, you can begin your plan to prune it.
Trimming your stems is a careful process, but if done right, your plant will remain healthy and be prepared to rebloom in several months.
If you’ve ever had long hair, you probably know that trimming it now and then to remove dry, brittle, and split ends strengthens your hair.
Trimming unhealthy or dead structures on your orchid can help it conserve energy and redirect growth into more aesthetically pleasing directions. It can also shift the plant from one stage of growth to another, prevent bacterial or fungal infections, and more!
After blooms fall, examine your stems to see if there are any weak or brittle areas or any areas that are browning or dying off.
Try to trim near the dead or damaged part, but make sure you are below it enough to reach a healthy part of the stem and are able to remove the entire damaged area.
Again, pruning should only be done after blooms have dropped.
Here are a few helpful steps to pruning your orchid without causing any damage.
If all of the blooms have fallen and you successfully located the second node from the base, grab your sterile scissors or pruners and follow these steps!
Carefully cut off the orchid stem a half inch to an inch above the second node above the orchid’s base. In six weeks, if your orchid has enough energy in reserve, you should notice a new stalk growing from that node.
Place your plant near a north or east-facing window so that it will receive plenty of bright, indirect light. (Depending on where you live and the design of your home, a south-facing window may provide too much light for your orchid and cause sunburn!)
Make sure to set your thermostat so that your orchid will be exposed to cooler temperatures at night. (Or move it to a cooler spot each night.) Phalaenopsis Orchids require a 20-degree Fahrenheit temperature drop at night for new flowering stem or branch and bud instigation.
Continue to water your Just Add Ice Orchid with 3 ice cubes once a week.
Once or twice a month during the growing season (Spring and Summer), fertilize your orchid with a small amount of 20-20-20 fertilizer, diluted to one-quarter strength. Or find yourself an orchid-specific fertilizer and apply it as recommended by the manufacturer!
In addition to watering, fertilizing, and exposing your orchid to cooler temperatures to encourage reblooming, be sure to keep an eye on its health during the vegetative stage.
Check your orchid’s leaves and roots to ensure your orchid is still healthy. Mushy roots signal your plant is struggling. Yellowing leaves could be a sign of struggle as well, but not always. Many things can affect a plant other than overwatering or sunburn, such as orchid viruses.
As the weeks go on, you may see what you think is a new bud or orchid flower spike, but it may be an aerial root. Here’s how to tell the difference.
If you just can’t wait for those blooms to return, you can always adopt another orchid or do something altogether different and get an anthurium, the world’s longest-blooming plant!