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Flower spike

I've obtained a number of Orchids over the years from the supermarket most of them are Phalaenopsis or Odontoglossums. They've all finished flowering, and the flower spike is still jutting up but looking real dry and dead. I wanted to know if it would be a good idea to just hack off the dead flower spike, or should I leave it on?

My second question is I've brought back a overwaterd Phalaenopsis that had a lot of rotting roots all over the place. It's doing much better now and has since shot out new roots from the rhizome. I wanted to know if it would be okay to hack away the rotted roots as some of them are green in parts and rotted in other parts on the same root?
 
go ahead.

i always cut off 50% of the roots when i repot anyway because i find it encourages new root growth. go ahead.
 
JLAP be careful about cutting half the roots off of some orchid species.  Some will sulk for years if you do that to them.  As a general rule of thumb for me the only one to cut roots off of is from the cattleya alliance group.  Phals, paphs, and phrags will sulk if you clip the roots unless they are rotten.  It is a good p[ractice to cut off all the rotten roots abck to the green because the rot can spread if left unchecked.  Some chids though can grow new roots from what looks to be old dead roots, but in the case of rot cutt it off.
Flower spike cutt off. some people leave them on if they are green, but if they are brown and dry looking cut it with some clean scissors. If its still green do some research to see if it will reflower. some like the phsycopsis will contiue to flower from the same spike for a long time. One flower at a time. Phals can reflower from a spike. so if you want don't cut if its green unless you know its not going to reflower. If its brown go ahead and cut it back.
 
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