Orchid Care Tips When You Have a Keiki
Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
This is an Orchid Keiki.
Although Orchid Keikis may look exciting because they are a plant growing on top of your original plant, they really aren’t a good thing. The reason they develop is that the plant is under stress and it is trying to propagate itself in case the original plant you bought dies. Normally this plant above grows in a rainforest, and here it is hoping if it is now in a rainforest it can grab a nearby tree branch, cling on, and start a new plant of the same variety.
This plant you see the keiki above on is the blooming stem of a Phalaenopsis which was cut above a node. Nodes are the three notches that look like bamboo on the flower stem above. What happened when this plant finished blooming is that instead of sending a flower spike out the side of the node as Phalaenopsis plants do when they have good genes and enough core plant energy, this one spent that energy in distress mode.
If this were my plant, instead of worrying about growing this keiki in a pot and waiting 4-7 years for it to get to blooming size, I would cut this flower spike 1 inch from the base of the plant and take careful care of the plant.
One long root can be seen following down the stem of this plant, and it is looking for nutrients, water, and most importantly, humidity.
This particular plant was stressed for a number of reasons:
- was watered too much sometimes, and other times forgotten and not watered for weeks
- often too much or too little sun
- most important: this plant sits on a humidy tray which is often empty so does not give this Orchid what it needs with humidity like where it came from. The humidity tray needs to be filled when all of the water has evaporated.
Any questions or comments? Post Below and I’ll answer in the comments field of this Blog entry.